The Great Valor
by kairiwilson1
Summary: *In the process of being rewritten*
1. Another Beginning

**O/N:** _To clarify, this is a Kingdom Hearts/D. Gray - Man crossover fanfiction. Naturally, it is AU. Canonly, the KH storyline flows true up until the events of Re:Coded, and the DGM storyline up to chapter 201. (Chapters 202 and 203 are wonderful chapters, but this story is going to move in a different direction than...creepy cardinals...xD)_

_So now, I will only post the follow once and it should hold true for the rest of the story:_

**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own D. Gray - Man or Kingdom Hearts. Nor will I ever, for if I did, they would both be complete shit (fandom is nice, but most of the time it lacks the building blocks of canon)._

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**1.**

"Where are we going?"

Three figures were standing near the edge of the docks, various boats floating blissfully along the soft waves of the ocean around them. One boat—or rather, ship—in particular stood out among the other, for it was neither a boat nor a ship, it was some sort of rocket ship made entirely of bright green, red, and yellow blocks. Yet the presence of this ship did not faze the three figures as they humbly made their way inside.

The tallest of the three was a boy commonly known as Riku. He had long, silver hair and captivating cyan eyes. His friend, Sora, was a head shorter and a year younger than him, sprouting spiky, brown hair and brilliant, blue eyes. Both of the boys wore the same general arrangement of clothing; an open zippered vest with a tank top underneath and baggy pants, though Riku wore light yellows, whites, and blue-grays while Sora wore darker nearly all black with the occasional bright red and yellow lining. The third and shortest of the three was not remotely human, but instead an anthropomorphic mouse. Oddly enough, the mouse also sported an open zippered vest-and-pants attire, much similar to that of Sora's except bright red with black linings. Interestingly enough, he was known infamously as King Mickey, king of Disney Castle.

It was the brunette who spoke first. It was only a few days ago when he and Riku had received the letter from the King explaining the current situation. The war was won, so they thought, but it seemed there were still key people out there in the universe who needed help. And if what the King had written was true, then these people all had connections with Sora's heart. With only this little bit of information, Sora had agreed to help find and save these people. Who was he to say no?

But the King had also asked for Riku to come along—not that he really needed to ask in the first place, since Riku was intent on coming anyway. Unfortunately for their third wheel, Kairi was to stay behind. The red haired Princess sugar coated her disapproval with warm smiles, but even Sora and Riku could see through her mask. Even so, they managed to convince her that the road they had to take was too dangerous for her to come along. Sora subconsciously reached into his pocket and fingered her thalassa shell good luck charm. _"Hurry back,"_ she had said with that forced smile of hers.

"Where are we going?" Sora asked the King as he went to strap himself in. Didn't want to risk flying out of the Gummi ship should they crash land. Sore smiled fondly at the memory.

"My old Master has requested to see you two," Mickey said carefully, taking the pilot's seat. This information was new to the boys. "He wants you to achieve your Marks."

"Marks?" Riku questioned., closing the hatch behind him.

"Mark of Mastery," Mickey stated. "It's an exam for Keybladers. If you pass, you'll be recognized as a fully fledged Keyblade Master."

Sora was glad he was safely strapped to his seat, otherwise he would've fallen out. "A Keyblade Master?" His blue eyes were wide, his mouth hang loose. "But I thought I already was—"

"You're not recognized as a Keyblade Master until you pass the exam," Mickey cut in patiently.

"Ooh."

It wasn't necessarily a silent ride, but once Mickey started the engine the conversation flow simmered down a little. There was a bit of small talk. How was the Queen? Donald? Goofy? The triplets? Everything was at peace in Disney Castle. Sora and Riku did not have much of a story to tell, though. Since their arrival back home to Destiny Islands, nothing eventful really happened due to it being summer vacation. Most days, they just sat around and soaked in the views they sorely missed the past two years.

Riku must've had some sort of glum expression on his face as he watched the islands shrink and shrink until they disappeared from his view completely, for Sora reached over and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Don't worry," he said with a warm smile, "we'll be home again soon."

"Yeah," was his soft reply.

This was not Sora's first time at Yen Sid's lopsided tower, but it's ominous aura made him shudder a bit. The trio made their way up the spiral staircase within the tower to the single room at the top. At first, the old sage seemed to be in a deep sleep, shoulders hunched over in his chair, but as Mickey opened the door to the room, the man opened his eyes and straightened himself.

Master Yen Sid had a simple appearance. His wrinkled tanned skin was covered by a single long, blue robe that trailed the ground even as he stood, and had a matching blue sorcerers hat speckled with yellow stars and crescent moons that rested firmly on his head. His long, gray hair fell down his back, while his equally long, gray beard fell down his chest, splitting into two down the middle. His face was a bit haunting, though, with his wide awake eyes topped with two bushy gray eyebrows and a seemingly permanent frown.

The King bowed politely to his master, gesturing for Sora and Riku to follow in suit. Riku quickly caught on, but Sora completely missed the sign and instead smiled and waved to the old man as if he were an old friend. Which, in a way, he was.

"Heya," he said in his usual cheerful tone. Riku shot him a bemused look while Mickey's smile seemed to falter a little. Yen Sid did not mind the informality, though, and simply waved it off, motioning for the other two to stand.

"I assume Mickey told you why I have requested your being here?" Yen Sid asked, maintaining his serious composure. Sora and Riku nodded in unison.

"To take an exam, right?" Sora asked a little too eagerly. Sure, a week or two without fighting off legions of Heartless and Nobodies was a nice break, but he was starting to miss the adrenaline rush he got when he fought with his Keyblade. Glancing over at Riku, he saw that the elder had a cocky smirk on his face. Sora grinned, knowing this "Mark of Mastery" would turn into an all-out competition between the two.

"Yes and no," was the retired Keyblade Master's reply. Before the brunette could ask what he meant, the sage waved his arm and two basic wooden chairs materialized behind the two boys. Taking the hint, the Sora and Riku took their seats. The King and his Master shared a look before Mickey nodded one and excused himself from the room, saying he had business to attend to and would be back shortly.

Which, in other words, meant this was a private conversation. Or maybe Mickey already knew what was going to be said.

"We have much to discuss, but not enough time to fully understand it," Yen Sid began. Sora shuffled a bit in his seat.

"You're not gonna make us read another book, are you?" he asked sheepishly. "Sora..." Riku muttered warningly. Yen Sid, however, simply smirked and continued as though there was no interruption.

"At this moment in time, Xehanort is regenerating—"

"WHAT?" This time Sora was joined by Riku in his outburst. Both nearly jumped out of their chairs. "But we got rid of Xehanort's Heartless and his Nobody!" Sora cried, "How can he—" Yen Sid held up a hand that demanded silence, and silence it received. Sora sat back down and shared a confused look with his friend.

"That is exactly why he is regenerating. When the Heartless and Nobody of a person are destroyed in that order, the original Somebody is restored." Yen Sid closed his eyes, his brow furrowed in deep thought. "It has been a long time since Kingdom Hearts has been directly threatened. It seems that the knowledge needed to protect Kingdom Hearts from threats such as Xehanort has been lost as the worlds grew more distant."

Sora and Riku exchanged another look, and the latter cleared his throat. "So what are you saying, Master?" Yen Sid opened his again and gave the two boys a piercing look.

"In order to save the future, you must understand the past."

There was silence for a moment. Sora was just about to voice his lack of thought when Yen Sid raised his arm for the second time that visit and summoned a metallic silver dual door, which appeared with a "poof!" and gray smoke and transparent yellow stars.

"I believe you have already had a time traveling experience, Sora," the Master said calmly, motioning for Sora and Riku to approach the door, "this experience will not be much different." Riku examined the door carefully.

"So somewhere in there there's a problem we've got to fix? And then another door that looks just like this will appear and we'll be able to come home?" Sora asked, scratching his head. _Is this really why we were brought here?_

Yen Sid shook his head, though. "No. This time you are merely observers of time. You must not interfere with this course of history, otherwise you'll risk completely changing the worlds as we know them."

"So...there's no threat to take care of?"

"There is always a threat at the height of historical events. It is because of those threats that the worlds are as they are. But that does not mean you should tamper with what has—or will—happen when not in your own time period."

"Gotcha. No meddling." Sora laughed and carelessly put his hands behind his head, "I guess that's why Riku's here, to make sure I don't do anything stupid, right?"

"Obviously. You're hopeless on your own," Riku smirked.

"Gee, thanks."

Yen Sid smiled softly at the two before frowning in seriousness again. "You should not be in there for very long. I have this door set to drop you off at a convenient point for you two to make you way to where you need to be, but this door cannot stay connected to the past for too long."

"Why not?" Riku asked, and was surprised when Yen Sid gave a low chuckle.

"The door has only been there for maybe an hour or so, and already a bystander has wandered through." He stood up from his chair and walked over to the two. "I'm afraid that once you go through, it will be a while before you find the next door that will bring you home."

They didn't have to ask how long "a while" would be. A few days, maybe a week, but surely nothing more than that. And besides, they could spend years in there and return to this exact moment in time and it would be as if their little adventure never happened.

"Are you prepared?"

Riku gave the old man an skeptical look. Of course they weren't prepared. All they had were the clothes on their backs, a few leftover potions from their last adventure, and their Keyblades. But it was like Yen Sid had said, they simply didn't have the time to waste over little details if what he said about Xehanort rising again was true.

Sora and Riku both pulled at one of the handles to the door with all their strength. "These doors to the past sure don't like being opened," Sora grunted. Riku muttered at his friend to put his "back into it" and to "stop complaining." It took a few minutes, but the two finally managed to force the dual door open. Immediately, a bright light beamed through the door crack before nearly enveloping the two in it's radiance.

"Be mindful of your Keyblades," Yen Sid warned them as the two boys stepped into the light, the door closing with a definite _THUD!_ behind them.

_"Some real nice friends you have."_

"Shut up."

_"I didn't know that locking you up and throwing away the key was the new way to show you cared." A soft chuckle._ _"I'll have to tell my friends they did it all wrong."_

"Shut. Up."

_"Don't be so mean! It's not my fault we're in this mess."_

A short, harsh laugh. "Says you. No one knows which side you're on. They're afraid of you. They can't trust you. Of course they're going to lock you away."

_"By locking _us_ away."_

Silence.

_"And feeding us shit food..."_

"Jerry's food is fine..."

_"Then why aren't you eating it?" A callous grin._

"..."

Allen Walker tuned out the Noah's voice in his head as he gazed at the stony walls of his cell with emotionless gray eyes. A few messy strands of snow white hair found their way into his eyes, which he brushed away absently with his right arm. For only a moment, his eyes fell to the shackles around his ankle, and his mind nagged at him to scratch that one spot on his left arm. He almost forgot about his current condition, and reached with his right hand to scratch at that annoying spot on his upper left arm, but was instantly blocked by a wall of wrappings, concealing the seals surrounding his Innocence.

Allen gave an exasperated sigh. He was tired, he was hungry, and he was miserable. And those factors were doing nothing but feeding the Musician's powers.

"I'll never give in to you," Allen mumbled before his exhaustion won him over again, "I can't..."

_Another chuckle. "But you have to, otherwise everything will be ruined."_

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**A/N:** _I was sick for a week. It was awful, having nothing to do but sleep all day. I mean, it was nice the first day, but it got old really fast._

_So during my week of sleep, my dreams decided to fuck with my mind and created this bizarre idea. But then agian, seeing how Kingdom Hearts is one of the standing fandoms in this, I guess a serious lack of logic is okay._

_I could give you all a proper summary, but I'm afraid I'll give too much away and kill my muse. If you can already piece together what the general gist is, then I applaud you._

_If not, then I'll spell it out for you: Sora and Riku go back in time for a little research project. Waaaaaay back in time._

_Aside from that, I just want to say that I don't normally write out attempted detailed character descriptions in fanfics, mainly because if it's a fanfic, I automatically assume that we all know who the characters are and what they look like. However, I know a few of my friends will read this simply because they are my friends and that's how they show support for me (unlike Allen's friends, who unwillingly jail him), and basically, they are divided between the two fandoms. Most of my friends are Kingdom Hearts fans who have never heard of D. Gray - Man. Even less o my friends are purely DGM fans. A good two or three are like me and fans of both. Taking that into consideration, I went a little out of my way to briefly describe the characters, and later their backstories. But after that, I'll revert back to my blunt writing._

_Alright, this long Author's Note needs to end. It's nearly midnight and I need sleep if I'm going to drag to sick ass to school tomorrow. _

**Reviews/Flames/Criticism/etc. are all greatly appreciated.**


	2. Another Battle

**2.**

Time travel wasn't as cool as it was in the movies. In the movies, you'd get dizzy, go through temperature changes, maybe get a little nauseous, and you get to go through a spirally wave of colors as you transport yourself from one time period to the next.

Sora and Riku didn't have the pleasure of an exciting journey through time, though. They walked through a metallic dual door, a bright white light swallowed them, and they walked for maybe a minute or so down (or up, or back, or sideways, they couldn't really tell which direction they were walking) a seemingly never ending white corridor until finally they saw the exact same metallic dual door waiting for them. At least, that's what they thought before said door opened automatically as they approached and they could see the world on the other side.

And they would've just stepped right through the door and continued on their way in peace had the door not been floating inconveniently ten or so feet up in the air at an awkward angle. The two stumbled as they tried to slow their pace as the "room" started to jerk violently, as though trying to shake them out.

"I think the path is closing in on us!" Sora blurted out, reaching out and holding onto the door frame to keep from falling. Riku scowled at him.

"Really? Never would've imagined that."

The vibrations got stronger, as though the "room" were splitting into pieces. Riku caught the left side of the door frame, Sora hung on to the right. They shared a quick nod of silent agreement; _Jump or be trapped in this whatever for who knows how long. _The ground didn't look too comforting, but at least it seemed to be grassy field of some sort which was much better than the not-so-welcoming white whatever-o'-death.

Riku jumped first. The ground came towards him pretty fast, but he arched his back, bent his legs, and landed quite steadily before stumbling a bit and regaining his balance.

But balance was not on his side and his face became acquainted with the dirt as Sora landed on top of him.

"I jumped to late," he muttered sheepishly, rolling off of his friend and smiling off the glare he received.

The world around them was quite dull and gray. The grass was moist with water droplets and the gloomy dark clouds suggested more rain to come. Not too far off in the distance rested a small old fashioned looking town—though that was to be expected, Riku thought, as they _were_ in the past—with buildings made of brick and wood. Judging by the grassy fields and the farmland to the side, the silver-haired boy figured they were in a countryside world. _Why would Yen Sid take us here?_ Riku wondered, wiping the water from his clothes as best he could. The distinctive sound of a train whistled ringed through the damp air and Riku smiled.

"Looks like there's more to this world," he said, motioning for Sora to walk with him over towards the town.

"Isn't that always the case?" Sora grinned cheerfully.

It was a fairly short walk to get to the center of town, which was marked by a small fountain surrounded by a bed of yellow flowers. The town was definitely not deserted. There were rows of small shops circling the town's borders and a few small cottages set to the side along the farmlands, and several people walked about to and fro. It was easy enough to get directions to the train station, but the two started to wonder if they should leave this area.

"Yen Sid sent us here for a reason, right? And besides, we have no idea where we are or where we should be going..." Sora drew circles in the dirt with his shoes—which he did receive weird looks from, for the shoes.

"True...but it's not like we'll get anywhere by staying in place. And I doubt we'll get some kind of obvious sign as to what we're supposed to do," Riku mused, mostly to himself.

As if right on cue, a single, high pitched shrill of what one could only imagine to be out of pure, bone-chilling terror rang through the air. The sound seemed so unnatural in the quiet town and burned the townspeople's ears as that clamped their hands protectively over their said ears and ran towards the commotion, too curious at the change of pace to think rationally and seek shelter far away from the vicinity of the scream.

Sora smirked at his friend. "And _you_ wanted to leave," he joked, receiving a punch in the gut for a reply and an urgent, "Let's go!" from Riku as the silver haired boy ran off in the direction of the disturbance. Sora recoiled, but quickly followed in suit, summoning his Keyblade the moment he saw...

...Well, a giant, metal balloon with barrel guns sticking out at every angle and a horrified mask of a painted human face blinking at the people obliviously as it shot at them relentlessly. At least, that's the first thing that came to Sora's mind as his absorbed the situation.

The gun-balloon-thing didn't seem to be a very competent fighter; if it saw something alive and movie, it aimed all its available canons at the general area target and shoot rapid fire.

Chances of them landing a hit while stationary: Not likely.

Unfortunately, the gun-balloon-things made up for the set back by having all their guns positioned at different angles on their bodies, so it's not like all their bullets were going to the same exact spot.

So, chances of getting shot while stationary and while the gun-balloon-things are stationary: Very likely.

Sora and Riku shared a grimace as their inner thoughts reached the same conclusion. "Take out the guns?" Riku gave Sora his typical "You're an idiot" look and responded by jumping up onto various crates and stands to get up onto the rooftops of the buildings. Sora was about to follow his friend's example when a horrific sound caught up with his ears.

Silence.

Only a few minutes ago, the townspeople had been running around screaming their lungs out, but the screams were gone. Not even distant screams could be heard. In fact, the only sounds there were were Sora and Riku's footsteps, the mechanical-like churning sounds from the bun-balloon-things, the next train whistling into the station, and some faint moaning. Wait, _moaning?_

Sora whirled around and caught the eyes of a little boy cowering behind a pile of rubble, nursing what appeared to be a wound. Despite Riku's growl of annoyance, Sora ran over to the boy, digging out a potion from his pocket. "Don't worry, kid, you're gonna be okay!" The boy didn't respond, instead doubling over and moaning in pain. Sora barely made it to catch the boy as he fell to the ground, seemingly passed out from the wound. The sight that followed, though, completely baffled the brunette; Black five-pointed stars spotted along the boy's pale skin continuously until there was nothing left except black. Sora gingerly tried to turn the boy over, but the fragile body burst into dust and filled the air with a foul odor.

Sora stared blankly at the dust pile, his mouth hanging loose in shock, before he jumped up and ran over to Riku, dodging behind a vegetable cart to avoid the gun-balloon-thing's bullets-o'-death. "Riku!" Sora waved his arms around frantically as he fumbled up to the rooftops. "DON'T GET SHOT!"

"_OBVIOUSLY,_" Riku rolled his eyes, leaping through the air, slashing at one of the gun-balloon-things, and landing on an opposite rooftop. He left a good crack in the gun-balloon-thing's metal shell, but only seemed to anger the monster as it turned to face him and fired a wave of bullet-o'-deaths at him. Riku dodged easily to the left, springing to the ground for extra coverage.

"Watch it, Sora! They're hard to cut!" Riku warned his friend before dodging behind another building. Sora nodded, then realized such an action was pointless in the heat of battle while his comrade couldn't see him and almost got shot in the face by a bullet-o'-death while mentally telling himself _not_ to nod in battle when he was shoved roughly to the ground.

"Wha—?" Sora flailed about, trying to shake off whomever it was on top of him. The figure above seemed unfazed at Sora's reaction and calmly told him to relax.

"Stay down," a firm female's voice said. The pressure on the brunette was released and he looked up, but didn't seem anyone around.

That is, of course, until he looked over the gun-balloon-thing that had been falcon kicked into the ground, leaving a lovely crater behind before promptly exploding. Gasping, Sora turned his attention towards the attacker and was met by the sight of a girl in a black dress and long, dark red boots, practically floating gracefully in the air. She didn't stay in one place for long, though, as she twirled around at top speed and zipped through the air, introducing foot to mask as she swung her foot up into a flip and kicked another gun-balloon-thing with a flash of light. The monster flew into the air and exploded, just like its predecessor.

From the ground, Riku gave a low whistle in admiration. "Impressive," he noted with a tinge of jealousy. Sora climbed down from the roof to stand by his friend, feeling awkwardly out of place now. "Looks like she can handle things here," he said slowly.

"Actually, I think there's two of them," Riku said absently, looking around, "I don't know where the other went, though." The silver haired boy shrugged his shoulders.

"Do you think she needs help?" Sora questioned, watching restlessly as the girl slashed another gun-balloon-thing with a powerful kick. The monster in question flew back from the force and exploded within seconds.

Riku shook his head,"Nope. I think she's got it covered."

Within a few minutes, all the monsters in the area had exploded (or fled) and no longer were a threat to the area. The girl landed gracefully on the ground and her long, dark red boots seemingly dematerialized. Then she turned her heel, spun around, and casually walked over to the two dumbfounded boys as if fighting horrendous gun-covered creatures was totally normal. Which it probably was in this world, Sora reasoned.

Riku took the ten or so seconds it took for the girl to walk from point A to point B to briefly size her up. She was most definitely a girl, supporting a curved, slender frame only a female could possess, and sported straight, shoulder length black hair and two violet eyes. She wore what appeared to be some kind of uniform, wearing a black coat with a matching short skirt, both trimmed with red lining. Her previous long red boots were gone, replaced with long black stockings, plain black shoes, and red bangles around her ankles. All in all, she was pretty cute, though a different kind of "cute" than "Kairi-cute." Riku had a feeling that this girl, who pretty much just waltzed in here and saved his and Sora's sorry little lives would appreciate being called "cute." Or maybe she would, in all honesty, Riku really didn't know.

"I'm so glad you two are okay," the girl said with a sad smile, gesturing to the dust piles of the townspeople, "Normally when civilians try to fight the Akuma, they don't survive very long." Sora and Riku glanced at each other, relieved to see the other had the exact same look of confusion written all over his face.

"Akuma? Is that what those things are called?" Sora asked, scratching his head. That was definitely a new word to him, it didn't sound familiar at all. The girl nodded and gave a very brief explanation about the gun-ballo—or rather, the Akuma.

Apparently, "Akuma" were souls of deceased people who took over a loved one's body against their will under the orders of someone called "The Millennium Earl." This so called Earl pries on the negative emotions of humans to create and control the Akuma, which he uses to potentially destroy the world.

Why?

Because...he hates it?

All Sora really got out of the explanation was that the Akuma were bad. They killed innocent people and absorbed their lives to their power levels or something, and thus they needed to be destroyed. However, he couldn't help but wonder if these were maybe the original Heartless or something. _Created and controlled from negative emotions? Sounds an awful lot like darkness to me, _he thought to himself.

"So I'm guessing you're a part of some special group that fights against these Akuma?" Riku asked the girl, waking Sora from his inner thoughts. She nodded in response.

"I'm from an organization called the Black Order; I'm an Exorcist," she said, flashing a slight, proud smile.

"HEARTLESS!" Sora shouted suddenly, summoning his Keyblade in a flash of light. The girl jumped back at his outburst, the smile fading from her face.

"E-excuse me?" she started to ask, but Sora simply ran past her and swatted at what appeared to be nothing. She turned around to get a better look, but she couldn't really see what the brunette was slashing at. Then she caught on: a shadow on the ground rose from the ground and took on a peculiar form of some twitchy, four-legged blob of some sort, sporting two crooked antennae and two bright yellow eyes. Whatever it was, it was gone in a burst of black and purple smoke as Sora drove his Keyblade through it.

Another wave of Shadows came and Riku joined in the fight, followed closely by the still unnamed girl, who mysteriously had her dark red boots back on. The two Keybearers easily swiped through the Heartless, but the girl, in her confused state, only landed a hit every other time, missing the Shadows as they sunk back into the ground and moved to attack her from behind. Despite her setbacks, the girl did manage to punt a few Shadows into oblivion. Soon, all the Heartless had dispersed.

Panting, the three gathered together again. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask questions," the girl managed as she caught her breath, "What were _those?_" Riku took it up upon himself to explain things this round.

"Those were low level Heartless called 'Shadows.' Heartless are creatures created from the darkness in people's hearts—"

"Hearts?" A voice asked from behind. This voice was distinctly male, though. Sora and Riku turned around, but the girl smiled and waved the man over.

"Did you get it, Krory?" she asked somewhat cheerfully. The man in question—some tall, pale man with a hollow face a short black hair with a long bang of white that fell over the side of his face, who wore a uniform similar to that of the girls except with pants and long cape-like black coat—nodded slightly, giving a weary glance to the two younger boys.

"Yes, I have it," he said, carefully retrieving a glowing green crystal-like shard from his inner coat pocket as proof. He returned the object to his pocket and gestured at the boys. "Who are they?"

"Oh, they're..." the girl looked questionably them. Sora cleared his throat.

"Well, I'm Sora, and he's Riku..." He stopped himself. Normally he could pull off the "we're not from this world" card...but he wasn't sure if he could use that here to explain their sudden and random appearance. But the girl and Krory seemed satisfied with only an name, as she held out her hand in a friendly manner to both of them.

"I'm Lenalee, and this is my fellow Exorcist and friend, Krory," she smiled warmly to them. "I have a feeling you two should come with us," Lenalee thought aloud. Sora and Riku exchanged a look.

"Why's that?" the silver haired boy asked. Sora scratched at his neck.

"Well, I think maybe you might be like us," she said simply and turned towards the direction of the train station, which was one of the few places still in near perfect condition. Krory offered them a warm, but sad, smile and made to follow his comrade.

Sora and Riku exchanged another look, of confusion and doubt. "You coming?" Lenalee asked over her shoulder.

"Well...what do we have to lose?" Riku asked his friend quietly. Sora shrugged.

"Like we have a choice? If the Heartless are here and they don't know about it, then maybe we should tag along for their sakes."

"Right..." they Keybearers jogged to catch up. Lenalee smiled at them.

"Good. We have a lot to discuss, then."

* * *

**A/N: **_I couldn't decide where to end this chapter. I guess I could've kept going a bit further, but I'm tired right now, and my writing fails miserably when I'm tired._

_So a very fail chapter ending for you~_

_So I've pretty much figured this logic for when they fight the Akuma/Heartless:_

_Sora and Riku, being Keybearers, can attack and destroy Akuma, though as they are not Exorcists nor do they wield Innocence can they release the souls. So their fighting the Akuma is the equivalent to the Akuma committing suicide.  
_

_Meanwhile, the Exorcists can fight and destroy the Heartless, but they can't release/collect the hearts. So in a sense, the Heartless they destroy simply regenerate, as that typically happens when you don't release/collect the heart._

_I feel like it's painfully obvious where this is leading. XD_

_Anyways, I think I'm going to attempt to update this weekly. We'll see how it works out.  
_

**Reviews, flames, and criticism are greatly appreciated. *heart***_  
_


	3. Another Filler

**3.**

It was an interesting conversation, to say the least. It very quickly became obvious to the Keybearers that there was a huge leap in enemies through history. However long ago they were, the main threat were these Akuma things, while back in the present the main threat were the Heartless and Nobodies.

Lenalee and Krory had led Sora and Riku to an old-fashioned train station—or was it a modern-fashioned train station?—and they quickly settled into an empty compartment. They all came to a mutual agreement to discuss the Akuma first, which Sora and Riku were immediately grateful as they found out how much they _shouldn't_ tell.

The Exorcists explained their horrid situation with ease and much more detail than Lenalee had previously stated before. But even when the Exorcists simplified their explanation to a dummy level, the concept still left the Keybearers baffled. They made enough mental connections to get the bigger picture, though:

Millennium Earl = Xehanort

Akuma = Emblem Heartless

Millennium Earl = Bad

Akuma = Bad

Though the Keybearers were quite disappointed to be informed that only "Innocence" could effectively destroy Akuma.

"Innocence is used to cleanse and purify the Akuma's souls so they may rest in peace in their eternal afterlife," Krory had offered as whatever he thought was a fairly good explanation.

"But what happens if you destroy Akuma without Innocence?" Sora had asked, cocking his head a bit to the side, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Then the souls aren't purified," Lenalee stated simply, only a tinge of remorse in her voice. Sora replied with a small, understanding, "Oh..." while Riku, naturally, was debating whether or not he should pry. He didn't have a chance to even consider an option, though.

"Pardon my asking, but," Krory shifted in his seat, eying the boys wearily, "You mentioned something about 'Heartless,' did you not?" Though he said it politely, Sora and Riku got the message loud and clear: "Tell us why you're here."

The two exchanged a glance, and with it a wordless argument, before coming to an agreement: No mentioning Kingdom Hearts, that was a given. But by not explaining the concept of Kingdom Hearts, they found it hard to explain the Heartless and their Keyblades.

"Well...uh..." Sora scratched his head, which Riku took as his cue to come up with some bullshit story.

"There are these creatures called Heartless...who lack Hearts, so they go around and steal other people's Hearts..."

The Exorcists listened intently throughout the train ride to Riku's story, blissfully unaware of the fact that it was missing several key components. They fully understood that Innocence was to Keyblade as Akuma were to Heartless. However, when Riku tried to explain what exactly a "Heart" was—"No, not the blood pump in your chest," he said, steadily getting irritated at Krory's interruptions, "it's a different Heart...like a spiritual Heart..."—It was surprisingly hard to explain what exactly a "Heart" was, as Riku had never found himself in a situation where he had to do so. Eventually they all agreed that the "Hearts" Riku and Sora were talking about were physical embodiments of a person's self—namely their memories—and without your "Heart," though you're still alive so long as no fatal injuries are inflicted on you, you typically go into a comatose state, though most of the time you'll turn into a dreaded "Heartless" and forever seek the "Heart" you lost. Riku didn't even bother explaining the Nobodies after Lenalee replied that, "That sounds worse than Hell."

For a good portion they all sat in silence—Lenalee had previously explained that she would take them to see someone named Hevlaska, who would check to see if they were "Accommodaters." Which, basically, meant that they were going to be tested to see if they were Exorcists, too—when a certain brunette pondered aloud, "I wonder which is worse; becoming a Heartless, or an Akuma?"

They debated this restlessly for the rest of the ride, which wasn't that long. Once the train reached the station, the Exorcists led the way to a church. Or at least, they began to lead the way to a church. It was Krory who brought up the issue.

"Lenalee," he began, eying the boys again as Lenalee turned in question to him, "the boys don't have a pass code. They can't travel on the Ark." Despite his mild suspicions of the boys, Krory was genuinely worried for them. Lenalee brought a finger to her chin.

"That's right, I totally forgot about that..." After a moment, the black haired girl seemed satisfied with the conclusion she reached.

"Alright, Krory, you go through the Ark and secure the Innocence, I'll take the boys the long way around," she said firmly. Before the elder Exorcist could protest, Lenalee raised her hand and silenced him. "I'll be fine," she promised, giving her—what seemed to be—usual warm, reassuring smile.

After a few moments of futile arguments, the Lenalee and Krory agreed on a plan, while Sora and Riku just waited around uselessly. Simply put, Krory would go back via the Ark, secure the Innocence, and then inform some man named Komui that Lenalee was traveling home the long way with two potentials; meanwhile, Lenalee, Sora, and Riku would hop another train (and a boat) over to someplace called "London," where the Black Order's main headquarters was located. The group stayed together for the short walk to the church, where Lenalee, Sora, and Riku bid Krory a temporary goodbye and secured a map of the area.

"It should only take us a few hours," Lenalee assured them as Sora and Riku exchanged a glance when they saw the map.

"And...that's the whole world?" Sora asked. It was probably a stupid question on his part, given the quizzical look he receive from the girl.

"No, silly. This is just one small part of Europe. There's a lot more to the rest of the world...don't you know?" The boys shook their heads.

"We're not..." Sora began, but Lenalee cut him off.

"It's okay, a lot of people don't stay in school long enough to learn geography. Thankfully, I learned my basic geography from my brother. You can look at his maps, if you want."

And with that, the trio made their way to yet another train station.

Meanwhile, Allen sat starving in his cell, eying the food before him wearily.

_"Honestly, just eat it," _a bored voice echoed in Allen's head.

"We've been through this, Neah," Allen replied with a hint of irritation, "It's most likely spiked."

_"Well I say you're just being a bit too paranoid," _the voice—Neah—said, the echo fading and becoming more clear and definite. _"How about I eat it for you?"_

"No."

_"Fine. Then how about this," _Allen blinked a few times before he figured he was either hallucinating or Neah was doing some kind of trick to make himself appear solidly before him, _"I'll eat some, and then we'll play truth or truth, okay?"_

Neah's illusion greatly resembled how Allen last saw him; Tall, dark, and handsome. Granted, he was only "dark" because he was a Noah, but Allen did not want to consider the near-exact replica of a certain Noah that Allen despised to be "handsome." He distantly wondered if maybe Neah and Tyki were related or something, but Neah looked noticeably younger than the latter, give or take a few years.

Oblivious, or ignoring, Allen's momentary thoughts, Neah walked casually over to the food placed on a small nightstand near the door and examined it.

_ "Which shall I eat first? This morsel of bread, or this..uh.."_ he poked at the mysterious substance he assumed to chowder, _"or this...assuming edible muck?" _Without waiting for an answer, Neah picked up the food tray and brought it over to where Allen sat miserably in the corner and placed it by his feet. The Noah stole a glance at his white-haired nephew—which was a weird thought, so he made a mental note to not think of him that way—and snapped his fingers in irritation in front of his glazed-over eyes.

_"Hey! No zoning out on me!" _Neah kept up the gesture until he received a halfhearted glare, which he replied with a slight smile and sat on the ground.

_"I guess I'll try the glass of water first," _he picked up the glass and examined it for a second. _"Bet'cha it's clean," _he said before gulping it down. Almost spat it out; it was warm, facet water. Regardless, he forced it down, took a satisfied breath, and placed the glass carefully back onto it's spot on the tray.

_"Alright, ask a question, and I promise you I'll lie."_

Allen gave him a skeptical look, but decided to play along. Mostly because he had nothing better to do.

"Uh...if you went to school, how long did you stay in?" Immediately after he asked the question, he felt incredibly stupid. He didn't know anything about the Noah! How could he tell the difference between a lie and the truth?

But Neah was an awful liar, so it was pretty easy.

_"I went all the way through university," _he said easily, though for the first time he broke direct eye contact.

Allen smirked at him. If Neah was Mana's younger brother, and if he died around when he had met Mana, then Neah would be around...his age, actually. The white-haired teen shuddered a bit at the thought. _He died around my age._ Shaking the pity thought from his head, Allen nodded at Neah to try something else.

This time the Noah bravely tried the chowder. He gagged before even putting it in his mouth.

_"Whomever is monitoring your menu should be shot," _he muttered bitterly as he forced himself to shove the substance into his mouth and swallow it down. After letting it settle in his stomach for a moment, Neah looked up and waited for his next question.

"How old are you?"

_"One hundred twentiefh-twoth."_

"That's not even a real number!"

_"Exactly!"_

Neah's cheerful laughter filled the cell. It was almost like being held prisoner and eating shit tasting prison food could hardly dampen his spirit.

That was, of course, until he looked at the rest of the food in disgust.

_"May I be spared of this obviously _poisoned_ food?"_ he questioned his companion.

Allen's stomach growled for the millionth time since his imprisonment and he sighed, giving in. As he reached over for the pitiful food prepared for him (minus the water the Neah drank), the Noah dematerialized in a fancy sparkle of light. Very briefly, a light glow emitted from the Exorcist, but he ignored it as he dug hungrily into the food.

It wasn't nearly enough to fill him, but Allen assumed it was enough to keep him alive.

"Remind me why I'm trying to stay alive again?" Allen asked his head, grouchiness setting back in.

_"We've got to kill the Millennium Earl, of course~!"_ Neah's smile was all over his voice.

Allen sighed agitatedly in reply and leaned back into his corner, absently scratching at the shackles around his ankles. _How can I defeat the Millennium Earl if I'm stuck in here?_ He thought to himself. Forgetting that nowadays he gets an instant reply to his inner thoughts, he jumped at the voice that rang loud and clear through his mind.

_"I have a plan. I know it. You know it. You just have to accept it..."_

Blocking out Neah's "subtle" urges, Allen shifted his body to get comfortable, weakness dragging him away from consciousness. Before he closed his eyes and was greeted coldly by sleep, Allen distantly wondered how Tim was doing.

_"I can check if you wan—"_

"No," Allen thought back, but he was too late.

Neah was already gone.

* * *

**A/N:** _This one is slightly shorter than the other two chapters, being only six pages long. _

_My friend whom I haven't seen in a long time was over all weekend, so I didn't have much time to write._

_Not that I needed a lot of time to write this chapter._

_You know the chapter that exists solely to link one event to the next, and otherwise serves little purpose or amusement aside from the fact that without this seemingly unnecessary chapter you get utterly confused as to what transpired between point A and point B?_

_Yeah, this is that chapter. _

_I don't really care much for Sora and Riku, so we can assume that their journey to the Order with Lenalee is generally uneventful._

_Allen and Neah, however, I adore. I don't even know how Neah's supposed to act, so I'm winging it._

_As for how I figured Neah's age?_

_DGM Reverse 3 states that Mana's age is around 19 (holyshitwhut). Adding in the facter that Tyki and Neah look alike (which is a factor I'll be using later in this story), and Tyki is 26, minus about ten years and you get 16, right?_

_So I figure, minus about ten years from the current present time of the DGM canon, and Allen would be 6 years old, so assuming Mana is 19 about that time (thus making him 29, if he were still alive...plus the age difference between Mana and Neah hasn't officially been confirmed anyway), then we can assume that Neah died when he was somewhere between 14-16 years old (depends, how long was Mana insane before he met Allen?)._

_That's typically the logic I'm using and sticking with throughout the remainder of this story. If canon says otherwise, then I'll just have to deal._

_Also, thanks for the support for this story thus far~ It really is making me happy~ *heart*_

_Oh, and I wanted to hit this up last chapter, but I forgot. I got a review asking me not to make this story yaoi/yuri/whatever. _

_If anything, I'd hint at canon pairings (for KH, that'd be SoKai, for DGM...that'd be any pairings mentioned in the Reverse novels..which include LaviLena *heartheartheart*). Canonly, however, the gayest the two series get is Kanda's implied first kiss. (Seriously, go read the third Reverse novel. Like, now. XD)_

_So basically, I'm keeping it mainly friendship and sticking to the morals of the canon. At least, to the best of my ability, I will._

_So even more basically: No. Pairings._

_Hints, yes. But no definite pairings._

_Kthnx._

**Reviews, flames, and criticisms are greatly appreciated~**_  
_


	4. Death Sentence

**4.**

"Headquarters" turned out to be some kind of castle. _Figures,_ Sora thought,_ all the headquarters are in castles._ Organization XIII, Ansem's traitorous apprentices...this place... Though it blended in nicely with the rest of the city of this so-called "London;" each building seemed to be made of some kind of stone or brick, built up and arched with iron windows, though in the distance a familiar bell tower stood proudly, and Sora wondered if it was broken yet. The stone streets were lined with tall, black lamps that gave off a yellowish light, and up above the gloomy skies were predicting rain in their forecast.

"Looks lovely," Sora had said, giving a weak smile. He couldn't help it if his past experiences with castles weren't the greatest.

The trio had barely made it through the front door before they were attacked.

Sort of.

The front doors had opened and the last thing Sora saw before being introduced to the lovely brick ground was some crazy man was speeding through the hallway crying (literally, _crying_, unless the tears exploding from his face meant he had some kind of eye-related problem or something), "LENALEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!" From the ground, Sora watched confusedly as the man dropped to his knees and skidded towards the girl in question, instantly wrapping his arms around her legs and continued his little episode.

"Lenalee! I was so worried!" he had shrieked over and over again before Lenalee finally shook him off and reassured him that she was perfectly fine. After a few moments of utter nonsense, Lenalee had managed to lead Sora, Riku, and the crazy man into what was apparently the crazy man's office.

Which was where the two keybearers found a "world map" and were gaping at the immense size of the world they were on.

Amongst the rubble and endless piles of paper sat a simple wooden desk (partially hidden under the papers), a simple office chair (partially hidden under the papers), and a simple red couch (surprisingly clear pf papers). Lenalee had made the introductions short and quick before running off to get some coffee for everyone. In short, the crazy guy turned out to be Lenalee's obsessive older brother and apparently the "Chief Officer" of the Black Order, Komui Lee.

Like his sister, Komui sported shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes. A suspicious white beret sat lightly upon his head and rectangular glasses rested casually upon the brim of his nose. He wore a coat similar to Lenalee's outfit, save for the fact it was long and white and fairly reminiscent to that of a science lab coat. Strangely enough, the man was walking around in pink bunny slippers and no one seemed to mind. _Probably normal for him,_ Riku figured, not really doubting it.

Despite his earlier episode, Sora found Komui to be quite amusing—while Riku found him a little over the edge—and started up some small chat with him as he and Riku examined the various locations marked on the map. The placed labeled "London" was a speck of dust compared to the rest of the world, mostly which was purely ocean. Komui briefly tried to explain the borders of the countries and continents before another man, in similar attire, barged into the room and started scolding his boss for not filling out whatever paperwork he needed to fill.

"I'm sorry, Reever!" Komui shouted, flailing his arms. "I'm afraid I've gone temporarily deaf!"

The blonde, Reever, gave him a skeptical look and shoved Komui into his chair and placed the papers on the desk in front of him. "Chief Komui, these papers are directly from Central and require your signature _as soon as possible._" The dark haired man simply grumbled something about a Komurin and frowned in disapproval at whatever it was he was reading.

Meanwhile at the map, Sora and Riku were exchanging many puzzled glances; the main reason being they both recognized some of the places. The most obvious one that stood out to them was China, which led Sora to briefly wander off in his thoughts about Mulan and Mushu. It was Riku who remembered London first.

"Isn't that giant bell tower in London?" He asked his friend. Sora scratched his head. Barely, he remembered his visit to Neverland...in which he sealed the keyhole at a giant clock tower...that Wendy said was named "Big Ben"...that was located in—

"Big Ben?" Reever raised an eyebrow at the two boys, who jumped and turned to to face him. "Yeah, that's here in London."

Before more could be said, Lenalee returned carrying a tray full of plain white coffee mugs, save for the single light blue mug with a pink bunny imprinted on it.

"Coffee~!" She announced needlessly as she set up a fold-up tray she brought with her and placed the coffee tray on top. "Sorry it took me so long," she was saying as she handed out the individual coffee mugs to specific people (whom had their names scribbled on the sides of each mug) around the office and the lab next door, "I ran into Miranda and she needed help with something..."

Poke.

Pooooke.

_ "Oi, Moyashi," _Neah teased,lifting up his mighty fork to strike again.

Poke.

Allen sighed, "Not you, too," before forcing his heavy eyes open. Maybe starving himself wasn't the best idea ever, given that he was starting to get more and more tired as the days passed by. Neah had warned him that they were planning on force feeding him soon, but so far they've only tried so once and gave up as Neah successfully scared them off with his insistent maniacal laughter.

_"Alright then, I'll start calling you 'Red,'"_ the Noah smiled, aiming his fork again. _"Guess what?"_ he cooed.

"What?" came the disgruntled reply as Allen was struck by another obnoxious poke. He wondered if he was strong enough to snatch that fork out of his companion's hand.

_"The higher ups have already found your replacements~ " _Neah's grin stretched unnaturally across his face. It was obvious he was fairly amused by this.

Allen, however, was not amused. "Replacements?" he repeated, frowning. The Noah nodded.

_"Whats-her-face...that Chinese girl found them and brought them here. Two of them, both boys, probably around your age,"_ Neah poked his vessel again with his mighty fork. _"Jealous~?"_

"Did they see Hevlaska?" Allen sat up.

_"Yup~"_ Neah tossed his fork back onto the full food tray by the door and leaned back, counting the bricks on the ceiling. A moment of silence passed and Allen figured the other needed a hint to carry on with the story. "Annnnd...?" he asked impatiently.

The 14th sighed. _"I only paid attention to a little bit of it. They're not exorcists since the stuff they use in their funny little swords isn't Innocence, but they're thinking of pushing them into the CROW unit." _Neah risked a glance at his prison mate and was met with an expectant glare. Rolling his eyes, he finished, "_Then I got bored and came back here."_

"What about their weapons? What do they use if it's not Innocence?"

This earned a halfhearted chuckle from the Noah. _"They fight with these funny looking giant KEYS. I highly doubt they'll last a month. Besides, Hevlaska said that the power emitted from their magic keys felt sorta the same as Innocence, but is some kind of totally different power." _Meeting with a silver glare again, Neah scowled, _"And that's all there is to it."_

Before Allen could ask another question, Neah dematerialized childishly in a sparkle of light. The white-haired teen gave an exasperated sigh and leaned back into his corner, pondering what Neah had said. Then again, a part of him still questioned whether or not he could trust the Noah, another part of him _wanted_ to trust the Noah, and the remaining part was stumped as to how it was possible for Neah to wander around freely through the Order without being seen. Really, it made no sense.

Link marched into the cell dutifully, glaring at Allen—who glared in return—before taking his usual seat in the chair provided for him. Allen started intently at the floor, recounting all the tiles for what seemed the hundredth time.

The first time Link came in for one of their "sessions," he really did try to get Allen to talk to him. Once he even tried to bribe the teen with food, but with no success. Steadily his attempts decreased, and now Allen's faithful watchdog merely sat in the room for his required hour and hoped to intimidate the younger boy into speaking—into saying _anything_ at all—through heated glares.

And still no success.

The day had been an absurdly weird one, that much was for sure. Perhaps the strangest part of the day was Riku and Sora's meeting with Hevlaska.

When Lenalee had described Hevlaska, Riku figured she was another Exorcist and automatically assumed she looked...well..._human._ Lenalee has said Hevlaska's Innocence had heavily influenced her appearance, as she was a Parasitic type, but the fifty-one foot tall figure was most definitely not was he was expecting. She didn't have any visible eyes, just a nose, mouth, and chin, and her body seemed to be made up of hundreds of tendrils tat combined and separated with each other at her will. To top it all off, she seemed to be made purely of light, though Lenalee insisted it was her Innocence.

After two very touchy-feelly sessions, Riku and Sora were returned to the motorized platform they were previously standing on and shakily awaited for Hevlaska's synopsis. After a few careful minutes, she determined the obvious.

"These two wield a power unknown to me," she started slowly, carefully choosing her words. "It gives off the same warmth of Innocence, but they draw their power from an entirely different substance."

Riku and Sora had agreed beforehand they weren't going to spill anything Kingdom Hearts related, so they simply nodded as if this were new information to them. Their act did not go unnoticed.

"If they can't be Exorcists, then they can fill in another position," an intimidating man with a pencil mustache mused commandingly. Komui glared at the man.

"Now now, Rouvelier, it's entirely up to them whether or not they stay with us," Komui reminded his superior with a scowl. Rouvelier simply gave a short, cruel laugh.

"That may be, but it's their responsibility as humans to sacrifice their talents to protect this war," the man turned his hawk eyes on the keybearers, who stiffened, "and right now that means donating your efforts to winning this ongoing war. Unless, of course, you don't care for the well being of the world in which you live..."

Despite the warnings of danger going off in Sora's head, he met Rouvelier's eyes with determination. "Of course we'll do whatever we can to save this world! That's why we're here!" Riku glared at his friend before decided to back him up.

"Besides, those Akuma aren't so tough," he said with more confidence than he felt. He left out the part about him barely being able to defeat one of the Akuma's "Level 1's," and thankfully, so did Lenalee.

The devil seemed satisfied with their replies. "Excellent. You're a bit older than standard, but given the fact we're lacking a few members at the moment, I'm willing to let that slide—"

"Um, Sir?" Lenalee interjected, a worried look wore heavily on her eyes, "Wouldn't they be Finders? I mean, if they can't be Exorcists then..."

Rouvelier gave her a scornful smile. "Why waste their capable abilities as simple Finders? No no, I plan for them to go through an accelerated CROW training. The sooner they complete their training, the sooner they can get out on the field."

"THAT'S SUICIDE!" the teen girl screamed in horror, causing the boys in question to nearly jump out of their skin. Rouvelier simply shrugged and sauntered off the platform, Komui trailing ruefully behind him.

"That's war."

"I'm so sorry I dragged you into this," Lenalee repeated again and again, wiping away her tears with her sleeve, "I'm so sorry." Sora and Riku tried their best to comfort the girl, but with little success.

"C'mon, have a little bit of faith in us, will ya?" Sora teased, smiling brightly.

"Yeah," Riku added, "we're not exactly push overs, you know." The girl gave them a small smile before bidding them goodnight and disappearing into the darkness of the night-filled halls.

Upon request, the boys managed to get a shared room with their own bathroom. "Must feel bad for sentencing us to the front lines," Sora joked weakly, claiming the bed on the right. Their room was still fairly small, with two beds crammed in on either side of the room and a window and nightstand in between. A door at the foot of Sora's bed led into the private bathroom, complete with toilet, sink, and bath/shower combo. Honestly, they felt it was a bit much, and the air in the room felt like someone hadn't just recently been in there, but maybe had lived in there for a while.

Riku picked up a stray red ribbon off the floor and tossed it in the compact trash bin near the bedroom door. "Wonder who the last occupant was," he mumbled.

"Probably someone who..." Sora let the statement hang, both understanding the unspoken word.

Whatever it was Master Yen Sid wanted them to see, they desperately hoped they were on the right path.

* * *

**A/N:** _One thing I don't like about this here document uploader is that it takes out my paragraph indents..._

_It annoys me, okay? ):_

_Other than that, DGM CHAPTER 204 WAS A-MAZ-ING. *heartheartheartheartheart*_

_It's like, one of the things I've been waiting for FINALLY happens, and it just makes me so damn happy because it officially happens and YAY. *heart*_

_Amazing chapter, really. Intense chapter, too. XD_

_Meanwhile in real life, I'm sick AGAIN. (Would like to point out it was due to serious illness that this story was created...XD) So I'll probably develop better plot points or something while trying to get rid of whatever it is I have now, or I'll just not be able to work on this for a while. Depends how long I'm sick._

_Also, I has a question: Does Kanda canonly curse a lot in the official English translated manga? Because every fanfic I read with Kanda in it, he curses like a sailor. Seriously._

_Meanwhile, I read the scanlations online, so it's not the official English publications (I wish I had money. Really, I do. It's on my list of things to buy) and I think the only time Knada said the FUCK word was in chapter...what? 199? One of those Kanda/Alma battle chapters?_

_Whatever, so I was just wondering about that. _

_Also, I don't care/know what the official English translation of "Rouvelier" is...so I'm just sticking with "Rouvelier." Besides, I like that name better than...what are his other name combinations? "Leville?" "Levvier?" Whatever._

_Next chapter, Allen is getting out of that damn cell, I can't stand it anymore. XD_

_Sora and Riku go through the mysterious CROW training program...?_

_Krory and Miranda and Marie need to make appearances before I explode of madness~ (mmm...if I was keeping this primarily fanon, I'd so ship a Krory/Miranda/Marie love triangle. XD)_

**Reviews, flames, criticism, whatever is all greatly appreciated~**_  
_


	5. The Black Order

**Note: **_Mobile upload test failed...*sad face* Sorry if you had to witness that awful blob of words. XD_

* * *

**5.**

The next day started almost too normally. Allen sat upright, leaning against his corner no longer for what little comfort it provided, but for the solid support needed to hold up his weakening frail frame, counting silently down from one hundred. Neah was running around the Order-albeit unknown to its residents-trailing after breakfast. No matter how many hours Allen spent trying to logically explain the phenomenons surrounding the Noah, he could never quite figure out how Neah could manage to materialize wherever the hell he damn well pleases to, nor could he figure out how he could carry physical objects to and fro, as the Noah recently got into the habit of nabbing a few pieces of real edible food for the starving teen. The teen in question was still highly suspicious of the Noah, that much was undeniable fact, but even he subconsciously started to admit that the whimsical bastard was starting to grow on him.

Of course, there was still that unshakable doubt deep within him that Allen couldn't help but wonder if maybe Neah was only showing him kindness through pity-or worse, maybe he was deliberately trying to gain Allen's favor for future use in his mysterious "plan."

The doubts drove Allen crazy as he racked at his brain to make up its mind already. Time was running short and he needed to choose his side before it all ran out.

The arrival of food distracted the white-haired teen from his controversial thoughts as he turned his head towards the door. Sure enough, one of the Finders held a metal tray in his shaking hands, rattling the dishes-which, given Allen's recent luck rate, were most likely a quarter full. Maybe a half if Jerry successfully snuck a few extra scoops in.

Not surprisingly, the Finder seemed completely oblivious to Neah's shadow looming over him, grinning his creepy, impossibly wide grin. Allen rolled his eyes. Really, why did he even bother trying to creep the others out when no one could see him?

The Finder quickly placed the tray down onto the table and shuffled out of the room. Neah slipped on in as the door flung shut, followed by an audible sigh of relief on the other side as the poor Finder continued on with his day.

Naturally, Neah laughed his Noah ass off.

"Man, they are terrified of you!" he wheezed, hugging his ribs as if such an act would actually cease the mild aching.

"No thanks to you," Allen huffed at him, giving a halfhearted glare. Again, why bother? After Neah regained his composure he produced two apples from his pockets.

"They haven't been overstocking on food since you aren't there to scarf it all down for them," he shrugged in response to Allen's disappointed frown and tossed them both over. The white-haired teen caught the first apple, but the second nailed him straight in the gut. He gave a pained yelp and recoiled a bit before shooting a fullhearted glare at the 14th.

"You did that on purpose," he hissed, forcing himself to keep his voice down so the guards didn't come running in again.

Neah snickered, "Yeah..." He wandered over to the table and claimed his favorite utensil, the mighty fork, before poking at what was probably supposed to be toast. Allen gingerly rubbed at his gut wound where Kanda had gracefully stabbed him and accidentally awoke the nuisance before him. Grimacing, he held back his internal cursing of the elder, guilt weighing in on him once again for his untimely death. He shook the thoughts from his head and nearly swallowed the apple in his right hand in one bite.

Nearly; not quite, though.

The two ate in their typical early morning silence. Neah nibbled at the attempted guilt-trip-inducing sorry excuse of breakfast courtesy of Central, while Allen inhaled whatever it was Neah was able to sneak him-which this morning were apples. Overall, it was a relatively normal morning given their still fairly new prison status.

If being locked in a cell in the headquarters basement all day without parole counted as prison. Probably did...

"You wouldn't happen to have your cards on you, would you?" Neah asked suddenly, waking Allen from his dozing. The latter shook his head.

"They're in my coat-" he started.

"Which is where?" Neah jumped up, ready to run out of the room. Who cares if Allen'll look like some crazy schizo? Neah was negatively bored!

Allen frowned and barely finished his "Should be in my room..." reply before Neah's illusionary presence disappeared from the room. Sighing, the teen leaned back against the wall, wishing for the hundredth time his left arm wasn't uncomfortably sealed to his right shoulder so that he could actually cross his arms when he wanted.

Yup. Just another 'normal' day for Allen Walker.

For Neah, however, the 'normal' day took a turn for the worse. At least in the case of the newbies, it seemed. The silver-haired and brunette boys seemed hopelessly lost and confused from within their own bedroom. The Noah couldn't help but laugh as his day got a little more interesting.

"What time were we supposed to been at the cafeteria?" the brunette asked, scratching at his bizarre spiky hairdo. Neah snickered as he slipped into the room, wondering if maybe he could mess with the boys.

How perfectly convenient it was that when two exorcists fell, two replacements were found. And within two weeks, too! That had to be a record. He distantly wondered if it would bother Allen to know his room had already been reassigned, but those thoughts were lost when he looked back over to the brunette poking at the clock, asking his friend how to read it.

It was a very good thing the two Keybearers could not hear or see Neah, for he was hunched over hugging his ribs, willing his lungs not to burst as he howled in hysterical laughter.

The silver-haired boy sighed in annoyance. The two of them must've been up and at it for a while if he was already losing his patience.

"I don't know, Sora. I don't know how to read those old clocks."

The brunette-Sora-chuckled softly. "Right, sorry," he said. "Which way did she say it was in anyway?" His friend shrugged in response.

Neah truly felt sorry for the two. Here they were, dragged into this cracked up Order, forced into the worst rank they can possibly get, and they were denser than very marble bricks used to build the headquarters. Plus, they dressed like clowns. It was a pretty sad, pathetic sight.

_'Really, who the hell can't read a clock?'_ Neah shook his head. Shame that he did, though, for he was standing near the doorway-unknown to the room's current inhabitants-when his gaze aimed downwards and met with the sight of a trashed red ribbon.

The Noah bit his lip and furrowed his brow at the sight. That, surely, would piss off Allen. In all the time Neah had spent shadowing the depths of the other's mind, he picked up almost immediately that Allen valued that damn ribbon. There was no actual reason as to why, as far as Neah could tell, but that was just the fact of it all.

Completely oblivious to the uneventful ongoings of the other two, Neah bent down and gingerly picked up the ribbon, tying it loosely around his wrist so he wouldn't lose it. 'Pants with pockets,' Neah reminded himself to get Allen a pair. It unfortunately seemed that even when the Noah presented himself in this "shadow/ghost/illusion" form, he took on his own personal appearance, but mirrored whatever it was Allen was wearing at the time. In this case, it was some itchy white short-sleeved jumpsuit kind of thing. If it had footsies it would maybe pass as a onesie. The ridiculousness of that last thought made Neah snort. He hadn't worn a onesie since he was a kid.

A knock at the door brought Neah back to reality. Sora practically skipped over to the door, flinging it open as if Moses were on the other side to lead them to Israel.

"Good morning," Lenalee smiled brightly at the boy. Neah scoffed, _'Man, that girl must be desperate or something.'_ Granted, it wasn't her fault her three best friends decided to get themselves in trouble. Kanda was dead, Allen was locked in the basement, and Lavi was...well he seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. Whatever, it happens. Luckily Neah's inner ramblings didn't extend along the lines of, "Why doesn't she just chill with her other friends?" because sure enough, the girl was one step ahead of him.

"This is my friend, Miranda," Lenalee introduced her nervous companion. Miranda was a pretty young lady with a nice, slender frame and a shoulder length brown, wavy hair. Even her raccoon eye make-up was fairly appealing. However, that girl was almost as fidgety as Krory. Then again, Krory was fidgety because he was easily excited; Miranda was fidgety because she was so damn paranoid.

"She'll be helping you two during training today," Lenalee stated after their brief introduction. She added a, "Good morning, Riku," when they other boy joined his friend at the door, but didn't re-initiate the introduction sequence. Neah figured now that they were distracted, he could easily search the room. If he remembered correctly, Allen had turned the pantry in the bathroom into a multi-purpose closet, so he headed into the bathroom.

"Do we have to start training now?" Riku asked lightly. "We haven't eaten yet," he added, almost like an after thought.

"Rouvelier wants to get you two started by 10 o'clock," Miranda answered shyly. There was a brief moment of silence, in which Neah imagined the two dunces were blinking at the girls blankly. His suspicions were probably right, as Lenalee forced a small laugh and said, "Don't worry, you have about two hours. I think you have a clock in there-"

"It's broken," Riku cut in quickly.

Another small laugh. "I'll ask my brother to fix it for you, then."

"Isn't he busy?" Sora asked. Neah smirked. '_That poor, poor child,'_ he thought as he rummaged through the closet. Apparently the boys hadn't discovered it yet, given nothing was out of place. The main concern was whether or not Allen's cards were in his old uniform, his spare uniform, or his no longer intact uniform. The latter of which was not in this closet given it's KIA status.

"I'm sure he won't mind," Lenalee replied.

"Isn't he always trying to get out of doing work?" Miranda's voice asked. "I sometimes see Reever dragging him out of the kitchen and scolding him about slacking off." Neah wanted to applaud the woman. '_That was probably her longest sentence without a stutter!'_

Neah quickened his pace at digging through the pockets of the two uniforms. He was starting to get really bored.

"Yeah..." Lenalee sighed and mumbled something. "Anyways, I'm guessing you guys would like an escort to breakfast?" she changed the subject, no doubt with a warm, sisterly smile.

"Yes please!" Sora chirped. The Noah internally made a bet with himself. '_Five pounds says that kid won't last a week,'_ he snickered. Luck seemed to be on his side as his hand brushed against a wallet. '_Make that...20 pounds...' _He stored the money in his shoes in place of his nonexistent pockets.

"I'm afraid I don't have a key for you guys, and I don't know where Al-where the spare keys are, so for the time being you'll just have to keep the door unlocked," Lenalee apologized as they finally made their leave.

"Oh, don't worry," Sora said, smiling, "these Keys aren't just for fighting Heartless, you know."

"Oh?"

The door closed, and moment later there was a definite 'click' of a lock. Minus the turning of said lock. Neah raised an eyebrow and peeked out the bathroom. The bedroom door was closed, and the girls on the outside were giving their appreciative "Ooh's" and "Ahh's."

"That's so cool! Can you do that on any lock?" Lenalee asked, overshadowing Miranda's interested murmur of, "Amazing..."

"Pretty much," Sora replied, throwing his arms behind his head, relaxed.

"Heh, way to show off, Sora," Riku mock-scolded his friend. The group must've started walking to the cafeteria at that point, as their voices steadily grew silent.

Sensing it was safe enough to fling open the door, Neah walked over and tested the knob. Sure enough, it was locked. It was times like these when Neah thanked God for the circus. After scoping out the bathroom a second time, Neah found a few pins and started working at the lock. Pins weren't the best tools to use for lock-picking, but eventually they got the job done.

After working out the victorious 'click,' Neah exited the room, closing the door softly behind him. He gave a dejected sigh as he roamed around aimlessly. He had failed his mission of retrieving Allen's deck of cards. He supposed he could wander around in search of the break room and hope there was a deck lying around, but the Noah couldn't remember for sure where said break room was. It seemed the only thing Neah gained from his little escapade was the useless knowledge of those boys stupid little key-swords.

Neah stopped.

_Wait... _

_ Funny looking key weapon... _

_ If it can lock any lock. _

_ Then maybe it could_ UN_lock any lock. _

Neah made a 180 beeline for the cafeteria. Mission "Stalk-the-guys-with-the-funny-keys" was a go.

Meals at the Order would probably make up for everything bad that would surely happen, Riku decided as he chowed down on his delicious cooked-to-ordered breakfast. Seriously, he had just walked up to the order window and some extremely flamboyant pink-dreadlocked man asked what he wanted in the most motherly way possible.

"Anything I want?" Riku raised an eyebrow. The man, who had introduced himself as Jerry, nodded enthusiastically over having another mouth to feed.

"Yes, sweetie pie, anything and everything you can possibly think of~!"

After a moment, Riku decided on just getting a simple crab and cheese omlette. He was fairly surprised at Jerry's lack of disgust-as Riku was used to getting disgusted glances when he order crab and cheese anything-when he made his order. Instead the man squealed in delight, waltzing off into his kitchen saying, "Ooh! I've never tried that before~!"

The silver-haired boy went to go wait for his food with his friend, silently wondering if Sora's gaydar was also spinning wildly off the chart. He instantly regretted the thought upon meeting Sora's cheerful "I think that guy's cool" smile. That was always one thing Riku envied in his friend; Sora only ever saw the good things in people, while Riku only ever looked for the lines that divided them.

It didn't take long for Jerry to cook their food and find the table Lenalee and Miranda were sitting at, though the relatively short walk from the pick up window to said table was made awkwardly long with the low, judgmental murmurs and quick glances of the Finders. The murmurs got louder when Sora and Riku took their saved seats at what was seemingly the Exorcist's table.

"Sounds like there'll be new rumors flying by noon," one of the men commented. Of the two men at the table-the other being Krory-this man was larger in size, darker in complexion, and, to put simply, he was bald. Despite the headphones he wore, Sora doubted he was listening to music. He doubted MP3's even existed yet.

Krory, who sat opposite of the other man and beside Lenalee, looked up from his meal and turned to glance at the Finders.

"Rumors? About what?" he asked.

"This is just a wild guess, but I think it may have something to do about our new members," the darker man replied casually. Lenalee and Miranda stifled their giggles while Krory bowed his flushed face. Lenalee patted Krory comfortingly on the shoulder and motioned for the Keybearers to sit down already. Sora slid into the end seat next to Miranda while Riku went to take the seat next to Lenalee.

Only to be pushed back as a little kid popped out out of nowhere and claimed that seat.

"Snooze and lose, Allen!" the kid cackled, taking a quick bite of his toast before looking up at his friend to bask in his victory...

Only to pout in irritation upon the realization that the guy he beat had silver-white-ish hair as opposed to just white hair, lacked a funny looking scar on his face, and had a normal looking left arm. His temporary assumed happiness at seeing his friend in the cafeteria again was instantly crushed, and he glared up at the imposter boy.

"Who are you supposed be?" he demanded, ruining any intensity of his words by slurping his drink through a straw. Lenalee ruffled his blue hair.

"Be nice, Timothy. Riku and Sora are new around here," she offered as an explanation. And so the introduction rounds began as Lenalee tirelessly introduced Riku and Sora to the temperamental blue-haired child Exorcist. With a skilled soft cough, the dark bald man entered the fray, calling himself "Noise Marie."

Grumbling at the kid, Riku took the little seat Sora offered after scooting closer to Miranda, who in turned blushed and scooted into Marie, who also blushed a bit and scooted the few inches to the edge of the bench.

"Shouldn't you be studying, Timothy?" Miranda asked the blue-haired boy lightly, poking at her pear bits. The somewhat mullet-haired boy stared at her as though she were mentally "out there" and stated, "It's Saturday."

"Oh. I see. I'm sorry," Miranda rattled on, continuously apologizing for...well, everything apparently.

As per usual, Lenalee jumped in to save her friend from the spot. "Emilia goes home on the weekends, right?" she asked brightly, to which Timothy nodded.

"Yeah, she gets to go home, and I get sent on missions. It's so lame," he whined.

"Who's Emilia?" Sora asked, politely shifting his gaze away from the interesting little gem implanted in the boy's forehead. _'I wonder if that hurts him.'_

Timothy passed Sora with a judging eye before internally deeming him worthy of such information. "My tutor," he answered shortly, taking interest in his meal again.

Somehow the conversation shifted over to their latest mission assignments, which Sora and Riku only listened in on. Apparently, Marie and Krory were going out to China with one of the "Generals" to see if they could find clues as to where the "Noah" might've taken "Bookman" and "Lavi," and maybe backtrack to their last position. Meanwhile, Timothy happily informed the table that he and "Klaud" were going up North for some training, though when he didn't receive the reaction he wanted, he complained that it wasn't fun boasting about his forced time with the sole female General if "that stupid redhead" wasn't around to glare at him in jealousy. Everyone laughed and Marie promised that he'd find Lavi so Timothy could wallow in his envy.

And yet, the Exorcists and the Keybearers were oblivious to the shadow of a Noah watching them as they enjoyed their meal together, or when they bid each other farewell and told each other to return safely, or even when the two females led the way to the training room and absently answered the boys questions about the other Exorcists.

"Oh yes, Marie's blind," Lenalee would answer.

"He handles it pretty well, though," Miranda would add.

"Timothy's only nine, don't take what he says personally."

"He's that young? And he's out there fighting those Akuma things?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Krory? Oh, well..he's just Krory."

"He's a good man..."

"Yes, he is. But sometimes he alternates from being my little brother to being my older brother."

Their warm laughter was abruptly cut short once they reach the training room and were greeted by Rouvelier and some blonde guy who, like everyone else it seemed, had shoulder length hair, though his was braided back.

"Lenalee, I'm pretty sure the science department would greatly appreciate a morning coffee run," Rouvelier waved the girl off, dismissing her. Lenalee openly glared at the hateful man before making her leave.

Satisfied, the devil smiled cruelly at the boys. "Now then, this," he gestured to the blonde guy, "is Howard Link, former CROW member. He will be instructing you through your training today. And it seems you've already met Miranda Lotto," he added, disapproving of Miranda's subtle cowering.

"Yeah, so..." Sora began, but was ignored. Rouvelier reached into his pocket and dug out a black ball with bat wings. Said ball flapped it's wings and began to hover in the air, flying into the training room.

"I, along with a select few others, will be monitoring your performance through golems." He exchanged a glance with Link, who nodded silently and motioned for the other three to enter the training room. Rouvelier closed the door behind them and locked it with a seal.

Neah scowled as the Lord Asshat walked away with that cruel grin on his face that almost matched that of the Earl's. He would've assumed the two were related if he hadn't known better. Neah walked over and lightly poked at the seal. Despite his form, it still sent an uncomfortable shock through him. He had a feeling if he managed to get through the door, the seals in the room would go crazy and send the Order into an uproar.

Actually, the thought of the Order running around searching for an "invisible Noah" made Neah laugh, but he wouldn't risk it. Knowing Allen's luck, he'd be blamed, and that would make everything far more difficult than need be.

After damning the walls for being sound proof, Neah made his way back to the cell he's come to feel absolutely nothing for. Allen, of course, was sleeping in his corner, which suited Neah just fine. He didn't feel like going through the events of the past two hours as an explanation for his lack of deck of cards. He did, however, take the time to examine the shackles bounding Allen to this hellhole. Sure enough, each shackle had it's own individual lock, and the chain that connected them were locked to a bar on the wall. The shackles were linked together by a thin, elastic wire. What that was aimed to accomplish, Neah wasn't entirely sure. He was sure, however, that he could either unlock the chains and Allen can learn to deal with the bangles on his legs, or he could just unlock the shackles themselves. Either way, if he could get that key from the those boys, then Allen's escape would be definite.

Then reality came crashing down. Allen would oppose any plan of his if he stole the magic giant key. Damn him and his damned goody-two-shoes crap!

So then plan B: Somehow convince the boys to join him and Allen in their little soon-to-be adventure. Who knows, maybe having a portable lock picker who can also stand their ground might not be a bad idea after all.

Or there was plan C: Dig through Komui's office in search for the actual key to Allen's shackles.

So far, plan B had the most potential. If they boys helped entirely of their own free will, then Allen won't have any objections, and then they could get the hell out of here and go out on their long delayed mission to kill the Earl.

Easier said than done, but whatever. Neah grinned deviously at his plan. They only real setback was the convincing part, but surely he could figure something out. _'Maybe I can get inside their mind like I can with Allen...'_

The sun had nearly set when Link declared the day's training session over and stated that the next would start the same time the following week.

"Why not tomorrow?" Sora asked, genuinely confused. He and Riku were still in formidable condition, so he didn't understand why they had to wait a whole week. It wasn't like the session had been hard, either. Link said they'd be tested on their durability, and then Miranda activated her Innocence in silence and sat in he corner of the room with a morbid expression on her face. Sora figured it was because she didn't like fighting (which suited her defensive Innocence just fine), or because Rouvelier had demanded she not explain her Innocence. Regardless, they found out what it was pretty quickly, given that every time they got injured, their wounds would instantly heal. Miranda's Innocence was a nice one to have around, Riku thought.

Link simply shook his head, mumbled something in incoherent, then left the three at the infirmary, where he and Miranda insisted they go. Which was when Riku realized something was up.

"Miranda," Riku asked," when are you going to turn that off?" He pointed at her arm, where her clock face Innocence still spun around actively.

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd want to lay down first," she rambled as the nurse came, took in the situation, then ushered the boys onto beds despite their melee protests. Miranda aimlessly rambled off more apologies as she finally deactivated her Innocence. The clock face retracted and for a moment nothing happened, leading Sora and Riku to assume that maybe this was just a precautionary thing.

Then Sora flinched as his entire body screamed in pain. All his earlier wounds "healed" by Miranda were spawning and reopening again, and the experience was anything but pleasant. One the other bed, Riku was going through the same thing.

"What the-?"

"I'm sorry!" Miranda wailed, completely freaking out. "I'm so sorry! I wanted to warn you that it's only temporary, but Rouvelier told me not to, and he frightens me so much, and I'm so so so soo sorry!"

"It's alright, we understand," Sora tried to calm the woman down, but she had already fled the room, apologizing to everything and everyone in sight. The nurse rolled her eyes and calmly went about taking care of the boy's wounds, still despite their protests.

"Really, I can heal myself," Riku mumbled, but the nurse simply told him to "Shush" and forced some medicine down his throat and sleep quickly took over.

Upon witnessing this, Sora decided to keep his mouth shut and gave in to the nurse's reassurances. As the drug worked it's way through him, Sora figured he'd just cast "Curaga" on himself and Riku when he woke up.

* * *

**A/N: **_I'm just going to point out now that a good portion of this chapter was written while I was, well, doped up on medicine. _

_It happens. _

_I get sick, I take medicine, I get blown over with lame side effects. Whatever. _

_So this chapter generally kept straying from where I initially planned for it to go. _

_Again, it happens. _

_Plus, being in the comfort of my bed as I typed this, as opposed to my cold, metal computer chair, might've influenced that given that I could easily go back and change whatever I wanted. _

_Again, this chapter is subjected to mobile testing, so if it comes out weird...well, then I'll have to drag myself over to the computer and fix it. _

_Now I'm off to play Kingdom Hearts. _

_Again._

_ But this time it's different. For you see, up until now I never actually owned the game, my sister did. But now I have my own copy, so I've been replaying it. _

_And now I'm trying to get the Dream Rod for Donald. How do I accomplish this, you ask? Well, I've got to max out all my magic and talk to Merlin, of course! The only problem? In order to max out Stop magic, you've gotta beat Phantom. _

_FML. _

_I've beaten all the bosses in KH except for Sephiroth and Phantom. _

_Though this time around I'm determined to beat both! _

_On expert! _

_*has no life whatsoever* _

_Other than that, I would like to say I plan on having Miranda as a central DGM character, simply because I love her so~ _

_And I've been thinking maybe Krory as well. Timothy, I love dearly, but he's not going to stick around for the KH universe. Same for Marie. _

_I have decided how I'm going to divide the story, though. This first part is in the DGM universe, and the second part is in the KH universe. Whether I'll keep both parts in this one single story, I haven't decided yet._

_ Decisions, decisions. _

_Right now I'm having issues figuring out a valid explanation as for how Neah communicates with Sora. For once I can't use the SquareEnix card since Neah isn't a Square character. Damn it all! _

_/end ramble._


	6. Neah's Plan

**Note:** My ipod's autocorrect likes to fuck with me sometimes. Here are a few examples you might find if I don't:  
Komui = Komuri or Komi  
Lenalee = Lena-lee or Lena lee or Lebalady  
Rouvelier = Rover or Revolter  
Neah = Neat/Near/Neap or Noah  
Lavi = Lava  
Kanda = Kana or Kinda or Kansa  
Also, I've noticed my iPod doesn't like repeated line breaks, which is how I normally separate scenes, so I'll be using page breaks now. It'll look lame, but at least the scenes will be separated.  
/end note.

* * *

**6.**

It was quite an interesting place inside one's mind. Despite the endless white, an occasional memory would float on by, or a trail of words; whatever you were thinking at the time would show. Not that one could happily enjoy the view of their mind while being chained to a chair that just happened to be in said mind, but since when have details been useful?

Though the chains were kind of depressing Allen a bit. _"Even in my own mind I'm locked up!"_ he, yes, _whined_ thoughtlessly. He was kind of grateful Neah wasn't around to hear hi-

"Allen, you do realize that even if we're apart, we're still connected through our thoughts, right?" a certain voice teased, echoing through the seemingly empty "room." Allen groaned.

_ "Didn't you say you were trying to find a way to communicate with that Key boy?"_ Allen replied grumpily. It was official: His uncle was the only person known to put him in a legit bad mood. Aside from Cross, that is. And Kanda...

Other than that, Allen was against Neah's latest scheme. He, personally, didn't feel comfortable dragging the new kids down with him on his death journey, but as Neah pointed out, the Order was pretty much against him at this point and he really could use all the help he could get.

Didn't change how he felt about it, though.

Allen sighed, sitting back in his seat. Really, what was the point of trying to sleep if he just ended up back here in this room chained to a chair? Weren't dreams supposed to be pleasant?

Allen immediately shook his head. _"Why do I always feel so...hopeless?"_ he muttered to himself. Somehow, he knew what Neah would say. The Noah would tell him that he was giving up...which wasn't true! It couldn't be!

_...Could it?_

"Hey! I think I found a way in!" Neah's voice boomed excitedly, bouncing on and off the walls. Allen shot a confused glance around the room, but before he could even think to say anything, the white room seemed to get...brighter? The silver chains burned of pure white, light radiating violently from the shackles until the whole simply vanished in fragments of light shards. The chair itself followed in suit until, for a brief moment Allen truly thought he was free from his captivities. But in less than a second, the solid room itself dissolved into sparkles of light, leaving nothing but empty space and darkness as Allen fell down into the void, crying out and reaching desperately for the light that slowly dissipated.

* * *

Naturally, the nurse freaked out upon waking up the next morning to find her two latest patients gone. Little did she know that Sora had, in fact, woken up early and cast a curing spell on himself and his silver-haired friend. Together, the two left the ward and wandered aimlessly in search for the cafeteria for some cooked-to-ordered breakfast before the nurse could stop them.

Which was where they'd found out that, after just two days at the Order-"Two days and still we haven't really accomplished anything," Riku grumbled-they were already the main topic of a majority of the morning gossip.

Ignoring the insistent whispers, Sora and Riku hurriedly ordered their simple meals and made their way to the same table they sat at the day before. Thankfully, Lenalee was already sitting there, nibbling lightly at her food. To say she was shocked at seeing the boys in the cafeteria, and in perfect health, would've been a severe understatement. The dark-haired girl nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of the two sitting down opposite of her.

"I thought you two were in the hospital ward!" she gasped, slowly regaining her posture. "Miranda told me the nurse said it'd take you two at least two or three days to recover!"

Sora grinned at her, crossing his arms. "Oh? So you _want_ us to be injured?"

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that!" Lenalee shook her hands and bowed her head. "I just didn't expect you two to heal so quickly. Normally, the only one who could..." she trailed off quietly.

"Hey, no worries," Sora smiled at her, receiving a smile in return.

"Where is Miranda anyway?" Riku asked, finishing up his meal before Sora even started on his. Lenalee placed a finger on her chin and looked up in thought.

"I think she's finally asleep," she said calmly, but at the confused looks the boys gave her, she added, "She was up most of the night apologizing."

"Why does she always do that?" Riku asked as Sora dug into his breakfast. Lenalee just smiled softly.

"That's just how she is."

"Duly noted," Riku nodded. The three chatted up about little things, worried together about the other Exorcists wellbeing (three of which Lenalee likes to mention fondly, yet Sora and Riku both haven't met them), and sadly, the weather. The Keybearers felt slightly out of place even when talking with Lenalee, and were kinda grateful when she got up to go on a "coffee run." But it wasn't until after she left that the two realized something critical:

They had absolutely nothing to do and no where to go.

Their next scheduled CROW training wasn't until the next week, and according to Lenalee, Link had left last night to take care of something, so they couldn't even track him down to continue where they left off. They also only vaguely remembered where the lounge and library were, let alone their room or even the hospital ward. Riku suggested just staying in the cafeteria until Miranda or Lenalee came around. Sora jumped up and saw this as the opportune moment to slack off and go exploring.

"C'mon Riku! How often do we get to kick back and have fun?" the younger teen smiled encouragingly. Riku rolled his eyes.

"How about our entire childhood and prior to this mission?"

"You hear that? That is the sound of my joy being ripped and torn to shreds by you. Now get up and let's go!" Sora stuck his tongue out playfully.

Riku smirked. "Interesting word choice." He got up nonetheless and returned their empty trays before following his friend out of the sea of creepy murmured stares. "Where to, Cap'n?" the older teen joked.

Sora punched him playfully, then rubbed at his lip. "I say we try to find our room again! And thoroughly examine everything on our way!"

The two were in no real hurry, so they took their time mentally mapping out the Order. Which wasn't an easy task, mind you, given that after a while all the hallways started looking exactly the same. Soon, the only way the boys could know they made progress or they weren't in the same place was by checking the labels by the doors. Once or twice they passed someone who looked he knew where he was going. Once, they passed Miranda on her way to the cafeteria, though at the sight of the clearly not-dear Keybearers, she promptly shrieked in mild terror and proceeded to apologize continuously, running down the halls and flailing about as she did so. Breifly, Sora and Riku considered following her, but they decided against it, especially since they (accidentally) found a somewhat interesting room where they were allowed in.

LIBRARY was printed neatly on the room label. Shrugging at each other, the two boys carefully opened the door and made their way inside. The room was a library to an extent, at least in the "full of books" definition. Books were crammed into shelves everywhere; on the wall, in the bookcases, even just lying on desks and the cozy looking floor. In between the vast amounts of bookcases smudged together were study desks, along with chairs, where a few people, scientists, were either already passed out onto of their educational pillows or near ready to drop. However, there was a small fireplace along the single empty wall with an overstuffed brown couch placed right in front.

All in all, it seemed like a nice, cozy room to chill in until someone took pity on them and led them to where they were supposed to be. Either that, or until Lenalee found them. Whichever came first.

* * *

Third time was most definitely _not_ the charm, as Neah found out. He had tried nearly everything to communicate with the spiky haired brat: He tried running head-on into the boy, making casual hand-on-shoulder contact, and even concentrating really hard on imagining himself inside the boy's mind (which he was grateful no one saw _that_). Hell, not even the obviously smarter 'Riku' couldn't see (or sense) Neah! A Noah could only take so much failure in one sitting!

Needless to say, the 14th was having a bit of difficulty getting the kid to see and talk to him.

He was near ready to give up as Sora dozed off on the couch by the now blazing fire. Riku, on the other hand, was engaging himself in some serious hardcore reading, holding the books so close to his face, eyes wide in fascination as though the War of 1812 was actually that interesting, one would think the poorly dressed boy was starved or something. Neah shook his head. How these two were even considered for CROW, he probably would never know.

The soft breathing from the brunette brought Neah back to his plotting. _"Maybe now, while the kid's asleep and his guard is down..."_ Though, admittedly, it was somewhat hard to concentrate on anything with Allen's steadily increasing depressed ramblings running through his mind.

_ "Allen, you do realize that even if we're apart, we're still connected through our thoughts, right?"_ Neah rolled his eyes. Honestly, sometimes that kid was as dense as Mana.

_ "Didn't you say you were trying to find a way to communicate with that Key boy?"_ was his cranky reply. But Neah wasn't listening. Instead, he was focused on what he had said. _"We're still connected,"_ he had said. He didn't know why he said it, it had just seemed like the right thing to describe their...unusual relationship with.

Allen and Neah.  
Two minds, two people.  
One body.  
Though they were only connected through...spirit? Neah wasn't so sure.

The Noah looked down again at the sleeping Keybearer. Ordinarily, he would find the situation odd, for Neah was not one to loom over sleeping children. But in this case, he was not watching.

_ "How I connect with Allen..."_ he murmured to himself, taking a calming breath and closing his eyes. _How I connect with Allen..._ He felt the transition instantly; the weight of the world lessened until he himself felt weightless. Bravely, he cocked an eye open fast enough to catch a glimpse of the light engulfing him before he dematerialized into a familiar world of black.

"Hey! I think I found a way in!" Neah cheered, gathering his footing through the empty space. He missed by a landslide, though, and fell. Up, down, forward, backward, he wasn't sure. _"Sure is different from Allen's mind!"_ Neah thought, more amused than frightened.

Only a few seconds passed by before Neah was able to confirm he was a falling in the downwards direction. At first, a tiny blue dot was steadily expanding as Neah fell closer and closer towards it, but soon he realized the blue dot depicted the brown haired boy known as 'Sora,' with some sort of beach setting in the background. Four circles were up near the edge of the beach, each holding a separate face within them: a boy who was unmistakably Riku, a girl, a duck, and a...that was a dog, right? Smaller circles bordered the center images, each portraying a crown shaped crest. Whatever the platform was, it glowed an eerie shade of light blue and pure white, illuminating the endless darkness all around until the light was swallowed up. Upon landing unusually gently upon the mural, Neah realized the landing was made of stainless glass.

He gave a low whistle. "This is nothing like Allen's mind," he noted aloud, carefully walking around the platform. Did this break easily? He didn't want to find out.

"Who're you?" two voices asked simultaneously behind the Noah. One voice, Sora's voice, was curious, confused. The other voice, slightly higher but still distinctly masculine, was wary, challenging. Neah turned, expecting everything but what he saw: Sora and some blonde boy with curvy-spiky hair were giving each other confused looks of surprise.

"Roxas!" Sora exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" Roxas rolled his eyes-blue, just like Sora's-and stated simply, "I _am_ you, Sora. So I kinda live here." Which was totally normal apparently, Neah figured. He coughed lightly to return the attention on him, which worked too well.

In a flash of light and darkness, Roxas held _two_ keyblades in his hands, the black one held at his side and the white one pointed at the intruder. Sora gave the other boy and exasperated look.

"You don't have to attack the guy, Roxas! He could be friendly!" Roxas replied by changing the direction of his glare to focus on Sora.

"Are you kidding?" He started, scowling, "You might be blind to his illusions, but I've been able to see him for the past day or so! He's a creep!"

Sora raised an eyebrow, turning his attention fully on his mental visitor. "Have you been following me...?" He let the question trail off, which Neah quickly caught on.

"Neah," he held out his hand with a friendly smile, "Neah Walker, officially, but everyone just calls me 'Neah.'" When Sora made no move to shale his hand, the Noah swiftly made a fist and brought his hand up to brush some loose hairs from his eyes. _"Well this is delightfully awkward,"_ he cleared his throat. "Might I suggest a question for a question?" he asked slowly, smiling politely at Roxas's untrusting glare.

Sora blinked, taken slightly aback at the request. "Um, sure?" he managed, quickly adding, "but you've got to answer mine first!" Neah shrugged.

"Fair enough," he agreed, pointing at the keyblades in Roxas's hands. "I was intrigued by your...er...weapons of choice, so I followed you about to see if I could learn more." It was mostly the truth anyway.

"Why?"

_ Damn._

"That's another question," Neah smiled slyly, waging a finger in mock scolding, "you'll have to wait your turn again, kid."

"It's Sora."

"Right. Well, 'Sora,' where exactly...is this?" Neah motioned at the glass platform and surrounding darkness. Sora replied with an incredulous look of confusion on his face. He probably didn't use his brain too often, and his recent overdose of brain power was hurting him or something. Neah would happily believe anything than the possibility that this clown knew something he didn't.

"This is my Awakening," Sora answered slowly, glancing at Roxas. The two seemed to have some mental argument or something, resulting in blondie dismissing his weapons with a scowl, crossing his arms.

"...I'm sorry, your _what?"_ It was Neah's turn to look utterly lost.

Sora tilted his head in thought. "My Awakening...you know, like a physical representation of my heart?"

Neah was impressed. The kid actually said a big word. But then..."Your _heart?"_

Roxas cut in. "Aren't we taking turns with questions?" He gave a challenging glare at the Noah, ignoring Sora's silent "Let's stay peaceful!" pleas. Neah chuckled in response and waved them on.

"Why are you interested in the keyblade?" Sora asked immediately. Roxas resisted the urge to punch the other in the face, instead angrily clenching his fists.

"Sora," Roxas started calmly, "we wield giant keys. Most people with brains are curious about the keyblade and usually try to steal it." Sora shook his head.

"I'm pretty sure Pete doesn't have a brain!"

"He was under orders by Maleficent, who _does_ have a brain!"

"Ahem~" Neah cleared his throat, the boys snapped their attention back to him. "Well?" Roxas inquired. It was obvious that blondie was the smarter of the two...and the more aggressive. _"This might be harder with him around..."_

"That key of yours-"

"Keyblade," Sora corrected.

"Alright, that _keyblade_ of yours, it can unlock or lock anything, right?" Answering a question with a question...typical.

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, so long as there's a lock, I can unlock or lock anything. But it's mostly used for attacking..."

"Just tell us what you want," Roxas demanded of the intruder. The warning bells in his head (that he seriously doubted Sora had) were going off like crazy. Much to his annoyance, though, the Noah simply grinned and shook his head.

"I believe it's my turn again-"

"I don't care about your stupid game, just get to the point!"

_"Ass."_ Neah shrugged it off. "Simply put, a friend of mine has been unfairly imprisoned within this very Black Order." At the boys' still silence, he continued, "I came here with the intent of asking for your _help_."

Roxas looked skeptical, but Sora crossed his arms and cocked his head in thought. "Who's your friend?" the brunette asked.

Neah grinned again. "Allen Walker," he said, pleased with Sora's eyes slightly widening in recognition. "One of Lenalee's best friends. If you don't believe me, you can go ask her yourself."

Whatever the boy decided, Neah did not find out. The Awakening shook a bit before fading slowly into darkness, an invisible force plucking the Noah up and raising him towards the "exit." Within a few seconds, the familiar pull of gravity was back, the vivid light of the world returning as Neah smugly watched Sora awaken from his nap, Riku lightly shaking him, with a thoroughly confused look upon his face.

"Step one, complete~" Neah chimed to himself, turning on his heel and making his leave.

* * *

"Sora? Are you okay? You look a little out of it," Lenalee was saying, but Sora didn't really catch a word of any of it.

"Huh? Oh, yeah..."

Lenalee shot Riku a worried look, silently begging him to say something, but he merely shrugged and resumed his meal. The three were eating dinner together after a long, uneventful day. Within a few minutes of their settling in of the the table, Miranda presented herself in her quirky fashion.

"Any word from Marie and Krory yet?" Lenalee asked as Miranda carefully placed her tray down and took her seat.

"Nothing 'important' yet," Miranda replied softly.

"What are they looking for again?" Riku asked, stirring a conversation.

"Not a _what,_ a _who._" Lenalee corrected him, waging her index finger jokingly.

_"Who_ then?"

"Lavi and Bookman," the dark haired girl said stiffly, frowning, worry taking it's place on her face like an old friend. Riku watched her curiously.

There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask, but he settled with the lone question of, "What kind of danger are they in?" Lenalee shook her head, though, and when Riku turned his questioning gaze to Miranda, she too shook her head, stuttering an apology, saying she didn't know.

"All we know is that Lavi and Bookman were out on a mission with Choaji, another Exorcist, and they were attacked and abducted by the Noah," Lenalee said sadly. "Chaoji was left behind, infected with some mysterious virus, as a warning. Though we aren't entirely sure what the effects of the virus are...or exactly what the Noah plan to do to them..."

Miranda, awkwardly, patted Lenalee on the shoulder, offering her a bit of comfort, muttering distant apologies. "Lavi is a dear friend of...ours," she explained quietly to the boys, who both nodded in understanding. Sora poked hesitantly at his food.

"Like Allen?" he asked in a near whisper uncertainly. Sora still wasn't sure if he could trust his mysterious heart visitor...but if what he said were true...

Lenalee blinked wide eyed for a second. After a short moment, in which she racked her brain for all the instances where she mentioned Allen-_Had she said his name? Maybe once or twice..._ "Yes, he's one of my best friends, too, but how...?"

"So what did he do to get locked up, anyway?" Sora leaned back, no longer hungry. Riku gave his friend a questioning look, but Lenalee spoke his words first.

"What do you mean?" she asked lightly, though her tone screamed, "How do you know?"

"What did he do?" Sora asked again. Thinking back to what Neah had said, he quickly added, "Did he deserve it?"

Miranda frowned, shaking her head slowly at the boys. "I don't think this is any of your business-No offense, of course! I'm sorry..." But Lenalee seemed to think otherwise.

"No, Miranda. Everyone else knows, so it's not much of a secret..." Though it was obvious the topic upset her. Miranda looked a bit skeptical, but did not protest, muttering a few small apologies. Lenalee looked back at the boys, configuring a short and simple way to explain the situation.

"You remember what 'Noahs' are, right?" Sora and Riku nodded. They both recalled that the 'Noah' were the 'Millennium Earl's' henchmen...or something.

"Well, Noahs are humans, remember? When they're born, they're born as humans, and later in life their "Noah genes" kick in and they...well...turn into Noahs."

"And what exactly are Noah genes?"

Lenalee scowled at them. "Do you want to know the story or do you want to know about the Noah?"

"S-sorry..."

"Now then...where was I? Oh yeah, so there are only ever thirteen Noah naturally. At one point, a fourteenth Noah was created. And remember, the Noah hate the Innocence, so they're our enemies..." Lenalee started to trail off, sadness filling her eyes.

"...Aaaannd...?" Sora encouraged her to continue at the cost of Riku's elbow jabbed at his side.

Lenalee cleared her throat to speak. "Well...unfortunately, it turns out that Allen..." she furrowed her brow, thinking.

"He has a part of the 14th in him, right?" Miranda offered, but Lenalee shook her head.

"No, I believe Komui confirmed he _is_ the 14th..."

"So in short, Allen is the enemy?" Sora summarized. Lenalee frowned sadly.

"It's not his fault," she mumbled, "he never asked to become a Noah..."

Miranda smiled guiltily. "Would it help convince you of Allen's goodness if we tell you Rovelier was the one who order him to be locked up?"

"Haha, are you sure that guy's the good guy?" Riku joked, "He kinda gives off the villain vibe to me." Sora chuckled in agreement.

"He's also the one pressing for Allen's untimely execution," Lenalee murmured morbidly. Miranda, Sora, and Riku dropped their smiles as Lenalee grabbed her half-full tray and stood up. "Excuse me," she said, offering a small, empty smile before she quickly turned away. After mumbling a ramble of apologies, Miranda soon followed after her (only?) friend.

As soon as Miranda was gone, Riku turned to glare at his friend. "What the he'll was that about? Did you have an epiphany or something?" He scowled at Sora's indifferent expression.

"Riku..." Sora frowned at him. "I think...my heart is telling me we're on the wrong side."

* * *

It wasn't until after dinner had come that Neah came back, smirking victoriously. Allen merely glared at him in automatic reply, nursing the headache he's had since morning.

"I'm guessing your plan worked?" Allen frowned in disapproval. Neah shrugged him off, picking up the untouched bread and taking a hearty bite.

"I'm guessing your meal was uneaten?" He mocked.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, you look like a pig."

"Oink oink."

"Ha. Ha."

Neah flashed the white haired teen a devious grin, finishing off the bread and downing the water before finally answering, "It might as well have. The plan, I mean." Stretching his arms over his head, he continued, "I've certainly at least left the boy something to ponder. Shame his little conscience disagrees."

"And for good reasons," Allen replied snarkily. Neah ignored him.

"I left a map in their room, though. Maybe if we're lucky we'll have a visitor," he grinned again. Allen started to wonder if the Noahs' cheeks all hurt from their constant, sometimes creakily wide, smiling.

"And what do you plan I tell them, given no one can see _you_?" Allen questioned. He was oddly satisfied when the 14th's grin faltered and turned into a downright scowl.

"I guess...you'll have to tell them our plan. It'll be the easiest way to convince them..." Though Neah did not look pleased with this thought.

"Oh? You mean the plan you refuse to tell me?" Neah bopped the other on the head, wiping the smirk off his face.

"Two things: 1) You already know the plan, my thoughts and memories are at your disposal. Now if only you knew how to use your brain to access them..." At Allen's glare, Neah chuckled and continued, "and 2) I can promise you, you won't like it."

"There's a lot of things I don't like, but I have to deal with them anyway," Allen replied with a shrug. The 14th smirked in approval.

"Well I guess by now you've earned the right to know~"

"Golly gee. Thanks, mister." An eye roll and a groan, thanks to a sucker punch in the gut, later, Neah plopped down next to the boy and smiled smugly.

"It's actually quite a simple plan: First we steal back our ark-"

"What?"

"Then we go save your girlfriends-"

"What girlfrien-You mean Lavi and Kanda?"

"Stop interrupting me, damnit!" Neah stuffed the orange from the tray in the other's mouth to shut him up, much to Allen's displeasure. "And yes; we'll need swift transportation and backup~! Now then-"

"But Kanda's dead. And we don't know where Lavi is!" Allen tossed the orange. It tasted horrid anyway.

Neah decided to ignore his outbursts. "Then we'll take out each Noah, one by one, until the only one left is the Earl~"

"And then...?"

Neah chuckled. "Well, here's the part you're not gonna like..." Allen frowned.

"Just tell me."

"O-kay," Neah shrugged. "When we kill the Earl, we'll become the next Earl. Don't ask why, that's just how it works."

"But if we're the Earl, then the Noah will return anyways!"

"Precisely, which is why we'll have to kill the Earl," Neah concluded, wisely wagging around his pointer finger.

Allen furrowed his brow in confusion, though. "But...if we do kill the Earl...and we become the Earl..." Realization dawned on him, and his eyes widened. "Oh!"

Neah shrugged off Allen's frightened shock, concentrating on returning to his mind, maybe even finding a way to see Allen's 'Awakening.'

"But-!"

"It's the only way to permanently defeat the Noah," Neah finalized monotonously with a wave of his hand.

And then he was gone.

And Allen was left to ponder his unwilling suicide.

* * *

Riku was the first to find it. Sprawled on his bed was a blueprint of the lower levels of the Order, with one room circled in pen. A penned arrow pointing to the circle warned: "WATCH OUT FOR SECURITY GOLEMS." At the bottom of the warning, it was signed "Neah."

On their way back to their room (which Komui, when the boys accidentally wandered into his office, happily pointed them in the right direction), Sora filled Riku in on everything from his little heart trip. Riku was skeptical at first, though he believed his friend. How else could he have known something about his "Allen Walker?"

Though any doubts he had before about the reliability of Sora's recollection were thrown away at the sight of the...er...map.

"Maybe that's where Allen's being held?" Sora asked, mostly seeking his friend's agreement rather than stupidly asking the obvious.

"Yeah," Riku responded blandly.

Sora peered at the blueprint. Apparently, Allen was held in the lower science section, which probably meant he was a few floors directly down from Komui's office. Probably. He wasn't sure.

Riku folded the 'map' and placed it in his pocket, heading for the door.

"Where are you going?" Sora asked, tilting his head. Riku smirked.

"I don't know about you, but I would like to see this 'Allen Walker' for myself." He cracked open the door, sticking his head out to check for an empty hallway. Satisfied, he opened the door fully and stepped out, turning back only to ask, "Coming?"

* * *

**A/N:**_ OMG, what is this? Is this...plot development? *shot*  
And yes, I am fully aware that I am crossing lines already. Don't worry, by the end of this fic, so many lines will have been crossed, I'll be lucky if the fangirls don't hang my by my neck and burn my grave~  
If you don't like it, then stop reading and write your own damn fanfiction.  
So I was going to post this Monday...but was having a mental faildown. It happens.  
just like how I figured, hey, since I'm nearing five weeks late from a serious update, I might as well merge a few chapters into one.  
So I merged two chapters. You should know my writing by now~ It takes three chapters to move from plot point to plot point~  
Though now my updates may be entirely random. You see, long story made short, my friend hates Titanic. The 1997 movie. She loves Larxel though~ So I've offered to write a (seriously abridged) Larxel version of Titanic just to smite her~  
Because that's what friends are for. XD  
On the plus side, spring break is next week, and I plan on getting a lot of writing done. Or at least the Titanic fic done and over with so I can resume my regular fics.  
I think I even started a side DGM fic that I have to update, but that doesn't require my immediate attention...  
Long author's note is long and will die now~_


	7. Decisions Decisions

** 7.**

Five figures sat in a dimly lit room, barely illuminated by the candles along the wall making the room appear smaller than it actually was. Two of the five fought over a luxurious chair, tauntingly holding toy guns at the other's temples as though to threaten homicide should he sit in the chair first, even though the chair, though rather appealing to the eye, looked not at all comfortable. Regardless, they continued their little tease war childishly, giggling at their shared unspoken language.

The other three hardly paid the former two any attention. Gathered around a coffee table a few feet away from the others, these three Noah was as intently detached from their own conversation as they could possibly be. A young gray-skinned girl, with purplish-blue spiked hair and a Lolita getup, lounged lazily on the couch, doodling equally lazily on her homework. A young man of a near identical appearance, save for a classy suit in exchange for the Lolita and a top hat for added effect, sat up comfortably in a cushioned chair, bringing a lighter up to the cigarette in his mouth. The third of the trio was beyond all humane logic appearance-wise. In fact, he was inhumane; His body was largely round, like a blown up balloon, and he sported an insanely wide (and long) perma-grin (sharp teeth duly noted). Oddly enough, he was finely dressed in a Victorian suit and top hat to boot, with sharp round spectacles hiding his eyes. The round man—the Earl of the Millennium, obviously—sat back in a misplaced rocking chair, idly working on some needlework.

"You're looking well," the other man, Tyki, noted, golden eyes watching clouds of his smoke wearily. The girl, Rhode, looked up from her work at the disrupted silence. After a momentary glance of understanding between herself and the Earl, she shrugged and went back to her work.

"He's been fine for a few hours now," she said, filling in blanks mindlessly. "He just had to get the waterworks out of his system," Rhode added with a small smile.

"Ahh~" _Is that what they call it these days?_ Tyki thought with a smirk. He wouldn't dare voice out a comment against the Earl's little tantrum while said Earl was still so fragile. But still, the very thought of it all was quite entertaining. He took another swig and slowly breathed out a line of smoke.

"Not to be impatient, but..." Tyki intentionally trailed off. This was usually how meetings with the Earl worked: He summoned you, you came, he'd blissfully ignore you for an hour or so, you'd hint at him to tell you whatever it is he wants you to do, then he'd finally cut straight to the chase. Even so, sometimes this little game got a little old, and after ten years of it, Tyki sincerely wished the Earl would develop a few new habits. But wishing does next to nothing, as expected.

"Neah's always been a bit too forward," the Earl started, stitching away carefully, "I fear poor Allen has already lost this battle."

"You don't sound very fearful," Tyki noted in amusement, putting out his death stick. The Earl simply grinned-or maybe he reamined neutral, it was hard to tell.

"This is true. I don't really care what happens to the exorcist, 'Allen.' Nor should I really care for what happens to the 14th..." The round man stared absently at his needlework for a moment before slowly adding another stitch.

"You're not gonna start crying again, are you?" Rhode teased, despite the concerned expression on her face.

"I'm fine now," was all the Earl said.

A few more minutes threatened to pass by with no details, so Tyki pressed on. "The Order will surely kill him if Neah succeeds," he prompted.

"This is also true." The Earl set down his work and folded his hands in his lap, rocking back in his chair. "It would not be in my best interests for Neah to be killed just yet. There is a chance he may...reconsider should the right opportunity arise."

"What do you mean by that?" Rhode asked. She tossed her pen to the side and sat up, ignoring her homework completely to focus fully on the Earl. It's not like it really mattered if she passed the 6th or 7th or whatever grade for the hundredth time again anyway.

"That is something we will have answered soon, my dear," The Earl replied sweetly, his grin widening. "For now, I'd like you two to help us take matters in our own hands." The two other Noah simply watched him, awaiting their instructions.

* * *

Strolling casually, if not an attempt at his usual flamboyant hobble, the Earl made his way to primarily unknown parts of the manor, stopping short of an ordinary door in an ordinary hallway. Not bothering to knock, he let himself in, closing the door softly behind him.

He took one glance at the redhead slumped over, hushing his pained groans, in the reasonably comfortable chair on the right before grinning widely at the apathetic elder in the equally comfortable chair on the left.

Lesson one in getting what you want: If you must take hostages to get necessary information, allow them a few small comforts in exchange for the torture they will likely receive.

Said apathetic elder dutifully avoided glancing over at his suffering companion and maintained an entirely indifferent expression, though his empty stare hardened at the Earl.

"Earl of the Millennium," the old man acknowledged.

"A pleasure to see you again, Bookman," the Earl tipped his hat politely, though his grin grew sinister.

The captives were not alone, though. A sole Noah pranced around the room, giggling with giddiness at the redhead's obvious discomfort.

"Salutations, Earl~" the Noah greeted with a grin, poking none too lightly at the redhead, who hissed at the touch. The Earl chuckled.

"And salutations to you, Fiddler~"

The round man examined the redhead first, lifting up his chin so he could see the extent of the damage. Said redhead stared straight ahead with a glazed over eye-his right eye covered by an eyepatch-and a head beaded with sweat. His breaths were irregular and his eyebrows furrowed together in obvious discomfort, if not plain pain. Grinning at the cruel results, he released the younger man-none too lightly-and turned toward the old man; the red-haired boy merely slumped weakly in his chair, face contorted in pain he was determined not let escape through degrading cries, instead panting with shallowed breaths.

"Well, Bookman," the Earl said sweetly, "It seems that the parasite is spreading through dear Jr. pretty fast~" His grin widened anomalistically. "How long would you say this boy will have, Fiddler?"

"Approximately?" Fiddler grinned sadistically. The Earl nodded.

"Approximately," he repeated. For a brief moment, Bookman was sure he saw a dark glint in the other's eye, but in that moment it was gone. Regardless, he kept a cool poker face.

"I daresay, maybe a few days. A week at most. I can imagine that other man I infected is about the same~" Fiddler giggled and stuck out his elongated, mutated tongue and licked the side of the redhead's visible cheek, grinning in satisfactory as his latest victim paled visibly at the touch (as for who wouldn't when you have an eyebally tongue caressing your face...?). "I could speed up the process if it pleases you, Earl~"

The Earl glared down at Bookman, who in return glared straight back. "I strongly suggest you start talking if you don't wish for another one to die~ "

"We've already been down this road, Earl," Bookman replied boredly. "But as a Bookman, the information you seek is classified. I will not tell you what you want to know."

The Earl stood up straight and pulled off what could only be assumed to be a "Millennium Earl pout." "That's not very fair. You went and told Neah what he wanted all those years ago. And here I thought we were friends~"

"No more friends than we are allies," Bookman responded coldly.

"Pity." The Earl turned to make his leave. He stopped at the door and turned his head to glance one last time at his two guests. "Which reminds me," he said thoughtfully, "Wisely has been dying to see you~"

* * *

The morning came much too soon and brought an anal Link with it. Or maybe that was just Riku's personal interpretation of the moment at five o'clock in the morning.

"Wake up already. If you can miraculously heal in less than a day, then you can wake up early for training," Link scolded, pulling the sheets off the two Keybearers.

"Five more minutes.." Sora mumbled, turning onto his side, his back facing a displeased Link.

"I gave you five more minutes five minutes ago!" Link fumed. Riku could almost imagine the blonde's face turning red as a tomato and steam exploding out of his ears. He chuckled silently to himself.

"...And?" Sora turned over and smiled innocently at the blonde, causing said blonde to throw his hands up in exasperation and leaving the room, gently closing the door behind him like a proper man should, yet still running a stream of curses relating to "incompetent teenagers."

"Man, everyone's so uptight these days." Sora yawned and rubbed at his eyes. Riku merely sat up, grinned in agreement, then dropped into business mode and looked at his friend seriously.

"Has your dream man shown up again yet?" the silver-haired boy inquired. Sora laughed in reply.

"Well when you put it _that_ way..." At the older boy's devious smirk, Sora grabbed his pillow and chucked it over, aiming for his friend's face and missing by a few inches. "Now I don't want him to ever come back!"

Riku tossed the pillow back over. "Yeah, I'm sure Kairi would be pretty jealous if he did," he chuckled before getting out of bed. His face was met with another pillow. Oddly enough, Riku noted, Sora yelped in surprise as the pillow made yet another journey across the room; leaping out of his skin, it seemed.

"What are you doing here?" Sora asked...well...no one? That's how Riku saw it, at least. Yet there the brunette was, composing himself as he stared dead on at the bedroom door; a puzzled expression remained fixated on his face.

"Sora? Are you okay?" Riku asked carefully. He followed his friend's gaze but honestly could not see anything. The friend in question, however, totally ignored him in favor of the door. Which annoyed a certain silver-haired teen to an extent; no one replaced their best friend for a door (Kingdom Hearts, maybe, but not an ordinary wooden door)!

"We _have_ tried looking, but every time we do, someone always stops us. It's like they know where we're trying to go," Sora explained to the empty space between himself and the door. Riku simply sat down on his bed and crossed his arms, listening in on Sora's one-sided conversation.

_Maybe Roxas was having a live mindchat with him or something._

It was true, though, that the two of them repeatedly tried following the blueprint "map" to the circled location-they knew it was somewhere in the closed off science division, and that was the problem. Every time they wandered down there, a scientist would glare at them suspiciously and ask them to leave the area, stating they had no business down there. And technically, they didn't, but Sora was intent on finding this Allen Walker. _He just has to be the hero,_ Riku thought with a disapproving scowl. They had more important matters to deal with, like finding the other door to return them to the present so Yen Sid could explain in more riddles why they were sent here.

Sometimes, Riku just really wanted to know _why._

"Oh." Sora frowned, paling slightly. "That...could be a problem..."

"What, Sora?" Riku grabbed his poor delusional friend by the shoulders and shook him back to reality. "What could be a problem?"

Sora blinked a few times; staring at Riku, then over towards the door, then back at Riku. Apparently it clicked in his brain at that moment that he probably looked like a schizo.

"You can't see him?" Sora asked quite...well, stupidly.

"Door man? No," Riku answered as he let go of the brunette. "What's the problem?"

Sora gave another curious glance at the door, then back at Riku. "Neah's here..." he paused for a moment, listening, then continued, "he says normally only Allen can see him and no one else, so it's probably normal you can't see him."

"So why can you see him?" Riku asked, then mentally punched himself. "Wait, why am I asking you?" Ignoring Sora's pout at the obvious jab at his intelligence, Riku smirked and answered himself. "I remember back when I was working with DiZ and Naminé, Naminé tried explaining to me the...er...bonds in our hearts that connects everyone-"

"Shut up, Neah," Sora frowned in disapproval. "Sorry. Bonds in our hearts...?"

"Pretty much, you can probably see Neah because, well, you met him. In your heart."

"Kinda like how I can see Roxas sometimes walking around being all...Roxas-y? But no one else seems to see him?"

"...Yeah, something like that. It's complicated."

A few vicious bangs on the door quickly ended that conversation.

"Do I need to come back in there to drag you both out?" Link's voice growled impatiently.

"We're coming!" Sora answered cheerfully, ignoring the low mutters of Link as he backed away from the door. Something about "training" and "CROW" and "wasted on being a babysitter." As soon as his voice died down, Sora turned to Riku and quickly started whispering what Neah had said.

"Apparently the Order plans to 'put him down' or something to make it look like he killed himself, but to make everyone calm down they're spreading the word that he'll be spared."

"So we have to find him fast?" Riku guessed. Sora nodded.

"Neah suggests we find a way to get rid of Link so he can lead us." At Riku's skepticism threatening to surface, Sora added, "What if this is what we're here for? To save Allen Walker?"

"But what if we're not? What if we accidentally change the future? Didn't Yen Sid say not to meddle?"

"Right, but-" Sora frowned sadly.

"No 'but's.' Remember what you said? I'm here to make sure you don't do anything stupid, and risking changing the course of history is stupid."

"..." Sora looked down in thought. After a moment, he nodded. "You're right. Sorry."

Yet even as they left the room, Riku didn't miss Sora giving a slight nod to the corner.

* * *

Twenty minutes or so later, the three—Link, Sora, and Riku—made their way down to the training room from the cafeteria. Unknown to two of the three, a fourth joined them soon after, but at first he said nothing. Only after he was sure Sora knew he was there did he speak.

"I'll give them five minutes. Give or take a few. Then once Link is distracted, I'll show you the way."

Sora merely looked straight ahead, pretending there was no invisible man that was so badly tempting him to meddle. But Sora couldn't help it. He couldn't knowingly let someone die. And it's not like anything was set in stone, they were just going to talk...

Harsh sirens pierced through the quiet halls of the Black Order. Link immediately stiffened and looked around, holding a hand up to his ear. Sora and Riku, meanwhile, ducked their heads and covered their ears at the abrupt noise. Neah, however, simply leaned against the wall and smirked at the scenery.

_"THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!"_ A voice bellowed from hidden speakers along the walls. _"THREE OF KOMUI'S DAMN ROBOTS HAVE ACTIVATED AND ARE RUNNING RAMPANT THROUGHOUT THE ORDER-"_

There was a girly shriek and a static noise emitting from the speakers, as though the microphone had fallen over. Another voice spoke into the halls, this time a bit more familiar.

_"Not to worry! Everything is completely under control-!"_ Komui cried at the audible _thump!_. He must've been hit, though not hard since he could still be heard...literally crying...

_"Ignore him! There's a Komurin in the science division, one heading towards the cafeteria, and one...well, actually...Johnny lost track of the third one..."_

_"I did not! Reever's making that up because he lost it!"_

_"Anyone who can't fight, quickly find a safe place while we take care of this."_ The static returned as the sound of the microphone being pulled back and forth rang through the halls.

_"DON'T KILL MY BABIES!" Komui shrieked again. "LENALEEEEEE! PLEASE DON'T HURT SIR KOMURIN THE-"_ The microphone was abruptly cut off thanks to a deafening explosion not too far away from Sora and the others. Heat waves soared through the air as the building visibly shook, and Sora and Riku fell over.

"Dare I ask why the guy who makes psycho killer robots is in in charge of this whole organization?" Riku asked Link, shouting through the noise.

_'He's smarter than he acts!'_ or _'He makes those things with good intentions!'_ came to mind, but Link could only really say: "The hell if I know!"

Link quickly motioned Sora and Riku to get up. "Consider this part of today's training; find a robot and eliminate it at once!" With that, he ran off towards the direction of the explosion. Screw his babysitting duties. He wasn't required to monitor them, so he'd rather actually do his job.

Not that Sora or Riku minded the lack of Link.

"I'll look this way!" Sora said, running off in the opposite direction. Riku growled at him.

"Wait a minute! You're not going to go to Allen, are you?"

"Well..."

"Sora!" Riku made to grab his arm, but missed. "This isn't a game! We aren't a part of this time period! Changing it, even by helping someone, would be _bad!_"

Sora kept running, chasing after Neah as he glided with ease through the twists and turns of the Order, ignoring most of what Riku said to stop him. "I just have this...feeling that I should save this guy, okay?"

"A _feeling?_ You want to risk everything for a _feeling?_" Never had Riku ever wanted to punch his friend in the face so badly. And that time when he was possessed by Ansem doesn't count.

Another explosion knocked the two right off their feet, given it went off about twenty or so feet away from them. After the smoke cleared, the robot emerged.

Wielding a broom.

...

"Why the hell would anyone make an exploding cleanerbot!" Riku shouted in exasperation.

Sora shrugged. "I have a feeling...defeating that robot will just solidify our allegiance with this Order. And I don't think I want to work for that Rover-guy, something just seems really off about him..." Sora looked between Riku and the robot, and Neah.

"I'm sorry, Riku. I just...I really think this is what I'm supposed to do."

Riku glared at him. "You're an idiot, Sora." He glared for a few seconds longer before firing a dark firaga at the robot, knocking it over, and sighing. "Maybe if we split up here, one of us will find whatever it is Yen Sid wanted up to see."

At the return of Riku's glare, Sora gulped and said, "Yeah. Maybe."

Then he turned around and, covered by the smoke, was gone.

* * *

Allen was fairly used to rude awakenings; you couldn't travel with Cross and _not_ quickly adapt to it. But waking up to the sounds of screaming and explosions and the visible sight and smell of smoke everywhere was enough to make Allen facepalm.

_There goes Komui and his robots again..._

He knew it wasn't the Noah or the Akuma. The Noah were at least a bit more classy with their invasions, and the Earl wouldn't send sloppy Level 1's.

That, and he heard Neah cackling in his mind as he released the abominations.

The white-haired teen sighed and rested his head back against Timcampi.

Apparently the golem was having such a fit while he was separated from his master that the scientists, who were trying to hack into Timcampi's memory, were afraid Tim would spontaneously combust. Like he did back at the North America branch. That would be bad, they figured. So setting aside their experiments for the time being, the scientist locked Timcampi within Allen's cell.

Not that Allen was complaining half his breathing room was taken up by his abnormally large, singed golem companion; he was quite happy having a friend around again. Specifically a friend that wasn't trying to force feed him every now and then, or a friend that wasn't trying to get Noah answers out of him even though he honestly had no fucking clue what they wanted. And it was nice to have someone around who wasn't Neah.

That was probably the best part, not having to deal with only Neah all the time. Allen laughed at himself. Was he going mad with loneliness already? It had only been a week or so...

_To think...if last week didn't happen, maybe I wouldn't be here._ Allen thought sadly. _Kanda and the thirds would still be alive. Maybe Lavi would still be around, too. Everything would be..._

"Normal?" Neah asked.

Allen looked up. Neah was standing in the doorway; the door wide open for once, showing off the unconscious guards outside.

"When did you get here? I didn't hear you come in."

"You were asleep," the Noah answered. "But that's not important right now. We have to brief our friend," he said, smiling a smile that gave off a sense of cheerfulness. Allen sure was familiar with that kind of smile. He almost pitied the kid that walked into the room, took one shocked look at him, then smiled a genuine smile and waved and introduced himself.

"I'm Sora, and I think I'm here to rescue you!"

Allen pitied that boy named Sora. He would probably be killed. He wouldn't put it past Neah to kill him. Technically, that went against everything Allen stood for.

But he was sick of being locked away.

"I'm Allen," he wore his smiling mask once again. "A pleasure to meet you."

* * *

**A/N:**_ Hullo. I am kairiwilson1, and I shall proceed to take the Allen we all know and love and completely destroy him.  
kthnx._

_So six or so mental breakdowns later and I'm finally...well-ish enough again. I thank my dear friend, qwigoqwaga. That's her username if you wish to stalk her.  
Then again, if you actually do stalk her, I may have to choke a bitch._

_This chapter really turned into a chore to write. I started writing it back in...either March or April...right on schedule like I was supposed to. Then breakdown number one hit._  
_Shit happens._  
_So I worked on this one and off since then and...well, the layout of events for this chapter varied greatly. This is no where near where it was originally intended to go. But whatever. I'm satisfied._

_As you can see, today is a Monday, theoretically putting me back on my weekly schedule. Apparently when you're depressed, having a schedule to stick to may or may not help you. Since I've never really had a schedule, I'm kind of making one for myself, so hopefully I'll get better soon. Regardless, I forsee weekly updates returning now that I finally pulled this chapter out of my ass._

_The Earl is creepy as hell, btw._

_As a side note, I've figured that since DGM has fallen straight into the crack realm and can no longer be taken seriously (and Kingdom Hearts in itself is pure crack), I shall no longer attempt to make this make any fucking sense._

_Heart connections now allow you to see otherwise invisible people that you technically have no right to see._

_HEARTS. ARE. GOD._

_Meanwhile, despite the fact that Neah was killed 35 years ago, Mana was killed at approximately 22 years of age according to the Reverse novels WHICH ARE TOTALLY CONSIDERED CANON. Even though Mana was Neah's OLDER brother._

_MANA IS ALSO, APPARENTLY, GOD._

_[none of this computes in brain]_

_[dies from lack of canonical logic]_

_I'm just gonna call it now; Mana must've been an Akuma. Or a zombie. Cross can apparently make zombies out of people, you know. He did it with Maria._

_Fuck it. The world just made less sense.  
_


	8. An Innocent Misunderstanding

**8.**

Whenever she was lost or confused, frightened or scared, she could just close her eyes and picture her home in her mind. There, at the end of her view where the line ocean and sky blurred, was the infamous sunset of her childhood play island. To her right, Sora was lounging on the windblown palm tree; to her left, Riku was standing, leaning up against the same tree. Together, the three of them watched the sun set and mark the end of another day spent with one another.

That would be their last sunset for a while, though...

"Do you accept the challenge?" an elderly deep voice asked.

After a moment of hesitation, Kairi held out her hand and, scrunching her face in concentration, summoned her flowery Keyblade in a flash of light.

"Yes, I do."

* * *

5:57 a.m

"Neah?" Sora whispered.

It was still dark outside-the sun had yet to rise-and the robot commotion was still going on a few levels up, but it was reasonably quiet in the corridor the keybearer was in, so he felt inclined to retain that quiet atmosphere.

_"Hmm?"_ was the Noah's response.

"Are you..." Sora stopped himself. He figured it would be rude to just come out and say, "Hey, are you a Nobody? As in you don't actually exist?" Instead, he rephrased his unasked question. "Do you exist as a part of Allen?"

Despite the obscurity of the question, Neah merely shrugged. _"I am Allen."_

"But you're two separate people?" Sora pressed on, determined to confirm his suspicions.

Neah sighed with a tinge of irritability. "I exist because my memories were implanted within Allen. I used to be my own solid self, but I was killed. The only reason I'm still here is because my memories are still alive."

"Ooh..." Sora said distantly. That sounded more like two hearts merging together as one-which he had never heard of being accomplished before, but the idea seemed oddly possible to him-than the creation of a Nobody. Maybe if their hearts merged in one body, the stronger heart has the control. Maybe Allen's heart was stronger; but judging on Neah's Nobody-like behaviors, perhaps Allen's heart was weakening, or Neah's was getting stronger.

_"Either way, right now Neah's existence depends entirely on Allen's,"_ Roxas commented in Sora's head.

_"Is that why he's pushing himself past his limits to get Allen out of here?"_ Sora thought in reply.

_"Probably. I'd do the same if you were in his position."_

"Aww, really?"

"Don't make that stupid face. I wouldn't have a choice, my existence depends on yours, too!"

The two continued on their way in silence, though only one was visible. Neah was leading Sora back to his room to prepare.

Prepare for what, you might ask?

Well...

* * *

6:24 a.m

_Ba-thump._

_Ba-thump._

_Ba-thump._

The sounds of comrades shouting accompanied by running feet echoed down the hall into the infirmary.

_Ba-thump._

Slowly, the man peeped an eye open. The room was dimly lit. He let his eyelid drop. Then, with effort, he forced both to open.

A small hand caressed his head, stroking his hair.

_Ba-thump._

"My, my. Look at all the trouble he's caused this time~" said a familiar childish girl's voice.

_"Who?"_ he tried to say, but no words would come out. Or maybe he just couldn't move his mouth?

"Too bad no one here has the heart to stop him-they adore that poor boy too much to bring him down. Then again, we all want Allen~"

_Ba-thump._

_"Walker!"_ He managed a throaty grunt as he clenched and unclenched his jaw, trying to open it enough to make a coherent sound.

"Yes, that is his name~ He's the one causing all the commotion outside," the girl said, ceasing her caressing. She sighed deeply. "But no one is brave enough to stop him. I guess we're all doomed..."

_Ba-thump._

_Ba-thump._

_"Allen... Walker... Has he..? Is he finally a Noah?"_

Choaji's eyes flew open as he snapped into a sitting position. Breathlessly, he looked around the room-the infirmary-and wiped the sweat from his face. From outside he could hear the unmistakable cacophony of discord. He quickly shuffled out of bed and grabbed his uniform, covienently folded neatly atop his bedside table. He did a double take of the room before changing into his clothes and running out the door to help his friends.

_"The girl must've been a dream or something."_ Choaji concluded before focusing entirely on the task before him.

Meanwhile, Rhode stepped out of the shadows with a small grin on her childish face.

"Too easy~"

* * *

7:35 a.m

For a while, the whole room was silent given no one dared to speak-or even _breathe_ for that matter. Nowadays, it was fairly normal for Central to intrude, but the Vatican board members were...quite different. In the more intimidating kind of way.

"Inspector Rouvelier." The elderly clergyman at the head of the table spoke softly, yet his voice was like a slap against the silence.

Rouvelier, who was standing not too far off from the man, stepped forward.

"Show us the first recorded data," the clergyman said.

"Yes sir," Rouvelier replied, getting out his golem. He handed the device to Link, who in turn walked over to the previously place monitor in the room and linked the two together. The screen flickered on, showing Sora and Riku during their CROW training.

The occupants of the room watched the footage with stony faces until the head clergyman raised up his hand, signalling for the footage to be stopped.

"We all know why we are here now?" he asked. The few Vatican members nodded their heads, but everyone else, Central Branch Chiefs, and Generals combined, remained motionless. The clergyman sighed.

"I'm assuming, then, that you're never heard of Kingdom Hearts."

The room remained silent. Not even a gasp of surprise or any sort of reaction emerged. One woman, however, did raise her hand.

"'Kingdom Hearts' is a myth, from what I heard," Klaud said cautiously. When she received the 'okay' to continue, she started again. "It's controversial, but they say Kingdom Hearts is the door between Light and Darkness. Thousands of years ago, people used to live in harmony with a balance between Light and Darkness. But soon, most people began favoring the Light and abandoned the Darkness. The people of the Darkness grew envious of the light and decided to hide it away. They erected the door, Kingdom Hearts, to serve as the cage to the Light, and they created a single key to serve as the lock.

"Without the Light, the world grew dark and cold, but fragments of the Light remained with those who believed in it. Soon, the small fragments of Lights within the people of the Light began to shine brightly in the midst of the Darkness and warmth returned to the land.

"Still, the Darkness tried to repress the Light and created Shadows to follow every fragment of Light to smother it, but the Light simply had to shine brightly to disperse the Darkness.

"As far as the legend goes, the fragments of Light continue to search for Kingdom Hearts by venturing into the Darkness. They say that Kingdom Hearts is the Light that shines bright in the deepest of Darkness..."

Klaud looked around the room as she finished her story and blushed the the astonished looks she received. "It's some silly tale my mother told me when I was young," she muttered.

"Your mother told the story correctly," the clergyman said, unfazed. He motioned towards the screen again. "Those boys are defenders of the Light. Those keys they wield are Keyblades; weapons forged from the Light stolen by the Darkness in order to keep Kingdom Hearts sealed."

"So, you mean to say they fight to keep the Light locked away?" Komui asked uncertainly.

The clergyman nodded. "Yes, thus making them enemies to us. I request their immediate arrest."

There was a murmur of agreement down along the the table, though Komui and the Generals generally remained silent.

"There is one small problem with that request-" Komui started but was silenced by Rouvelier.

The clergyman cleared his throat and ordered the second clip to be shown. Link set up a second golem to the monitor.

"Here is the science wing's storage area, where the experimental robots were stored safely only a few hours ago." Link said, getting out a pointer stick and aiming it to a small area near the door in the shot. "Here you'll notice, at approximately 5:22 a.m, the passlock lights up, as though someone has unlocked the door. But, as you can clearly see, the door has not opened and no one has entered the room."

The clip continued for another few seconds when, "a black shadow distinctly forms right over here," Link says, circling the area around one of the Komurins with his pointer, "and it appears as though this shadow is intelligently activating the robot. After a few seconds, we can see the shadow making it's way to the cleanerbot before it vanishes, though the cleanerbot and the Komurin prototype still activate and, through and explosion caused by the cleanerbot, the three robots escape."

"Maybe there's a ghost here, too?" Komui offered lightly, though the dead seriousness throughout the room shot down any attempt at cheerfulness.

The clergyman ignored Komui's remark. "And what is it you think this shadow is?"

"We believe the shadow is a possible manifestation of the 14th," Rouvelier stated.

"How did you come to this conclusion?" the elder asked, not surprised in the least as though he knew this already.

"The guards outside Walker's cell were knocked out by an unseen force, and when they woke, the prisoner was not there. We have reason to believe that Walker and the 14th are separate to an extent, and the 14th used this separation as a way to cause a distraction to allow the boy to escape."

The clergyman closed his eyes and thought carefully over this information.

"Where is Walker now?" he asked.

Komui stood up this time and gave his elder a stern look. "This is what I tried to tell you earlier, Father. Allen is gone. He and one of the keybearers disappeared through a...portal of darkness about twenty minutes ago."

* * *

**A/N:**_ ...  
Ohaithar. Plzdunkillmeh~*heart*  
I totally...*mumblemumble*didn'..._

*cough*  
So...senior year...high school...first semester is all about them college apps...and tests...*shudders* I took the ACT last Saturday. Not. Fun.  
So yeah, school pretty much consumes my life nowadays. Thank goodness for winter break! :D

Which starts on the 23rd. -.-  
Actually, I think I have a full day of school the 23rd, so I guess my break starts the 24th...  
And I'm Jewish...

*ragequit*

So anyway. I originally started working on this chapter months ago. But today I checked my email for the first time in jdjfsjdosndhdj weeks and I got the NICEST review ever~! *heartheartheart*  
Lele-the-Greek-Geek, I'mma now hug you! *hugs*  
And anyone else who follows this story should hug her, too, cuz if I didn't check my email and see her super awesome review, this utterly confusing chapter would not be here...

Seriously.  
So again, I check my email, see the review, and I was like "hohshit I forgot all about that derp! :'D" and went to work on chapter 8!  
But I had completely forgotten what had happened! :'D  
*brick'd*  
So I read through the chapters (dear XEMNAS, so many typos! XD) and got myself caught up in my own story-

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has to do that? TT~TT  
And then I went back to read what I have written for this chapter, and I was like:

...  
Fuck it. *trollface*

So I deleted everything and typed this all from scratch~ It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're lazing around at home sick all day~  
Granted, this chapter is shorter than the others...by a lot...and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense...buuuuut it's something~

So yeah. Kairi's in the picture, whut? What's that useless bitch gonna do, get kidnapped? In the past? Psh.  
Rhode is fucking CREEPY. Just...I think I was writing out the beginning of a rape scene with her. Creepy little girl...>.>"""  
And I officially have no real idea what the next chapter is gonna look like...hmmm...

Hey! Allen's finally out of that damn cell! :D

*chainsaw'd*

Maybe I'll be like Hoshino and be a super troll and skip forward three months? :3

Reviews, flames, critiques-ahh, y'all know the drill by now~ 


	9. A Bizzare Situation

**9.**

It was a not so ordinary yet normal in every sense anyway kind of day, as thats how stories usually start. Typically, the hero or heroine would be curled up in bed, blindly reaching for the alarm clock to turn it off as it started blaring, but this particular heroine in question did not have the luxury of such an early morning non-effective wake-up call.

The bedroom door burst open and that samurai guy with the sharp sword that he usually uses for fighting shoved way up his ass marched in, accompanied by a color confused geezer teen who was dragging along what might as well have been a decomposing redhead.

At this point, the heroine knew that she was dreaming a fangirl dream. Dear fucking _lord_.

"The _fuck_ do you think you're doing laying in that _fucking_ bed not doing _fucking shit_?" Kanda, the asshat whom we all love yet for some reason all the fangirls like to degrade him through OOC dialect and behaviorisms, shouted as he summoned the sword-Mugen or whatever-out of his ass to hold threateningly.

But this was a dream, so he wouldn't actually stab the heroine. In fact, maybe he'd just spend two second looking at her drool streaked face and fall madly in love and I could appeal to the sexually confused horny 13-year olds by making this a lemon fic.

Haha, you wish.

"And stop referring to yourself in third person, you fucking self-inserting Mary Sue bitch!" Kanda added in response to my inner monologue that he could hear because, well, he's just a figment of my imagination.

...

Heehee...

Allen dropped Lavi to the floor and rubbed his aching shoulder. "Something sounding stereotypically British that's most likely Australian but Americans don't really know the difference anyway!"

"Shut the fuck up, _MOYASHI_, no one here takes you fucking seriously so go fucking die in a hole and kill yourself!"

I can totally see how they can be romantically involved. All hail Yullen fangirls.

"BRITISH/AUSTRALIAN ANGST!"

I merely rubbed at my arms, yawned, and crawled out of bed. Lea e it to these guys to get on my case again about being a lazy, procrastinating bitch. Like really? I was already falling behind in school and I had a raging case of Senioritis. I don't have the time to deal with their bitching and moaning that they're forever alone in the depths of my very dark, twisted mind.

As I ignored the boys and went on with my morning routine to prepare for another fucking day of school, Kanda and Allen went at one of their usual bitch-threat rampage that they always fucking did because it's not like they had better shit to do or anything _(THEY EXPRESS THEIR LOVE THROUGH THEIR FIERY HATE)_. Lavi, meanwhile, was wriggling in utter agony on the floor, managing only a few choked coughs through his constant, torturous gurgling and wheezing.

"The fuck did I do to deserve this?" the redhead moaned, tears streaking down his face.

And this is the part where I think Kanda and Allen both suddenly turn gay for Lavi...OH! That's where Endavi comes from!

"STOP FUCKING CHANGING THE FUCKING SUBJECT YOH FUCKING BITCH!"

Kanda yelled very grrr-ly like.

"The fuck are you cursing for, dumb dumb?" I asked calmly. Cuz I'mma fucking Sue, yo.

"I'M A FUCKING BADASS AND ALL FUCKING BADASSES USE THE FUCKING FUCK WORD AT LEAST FIVE FUCKING TIMES EVERY FUCKING MINUTE!"

"I wonder which fangirl came up with that one...oh well." I tossed my bag over my shoulder, stepped over the forever dying Lavi, toned out Allen's verbal and physical identity crisis, and made my way down the stairs. I think I'm gonna make some toast for breakfast.

Unfortunately, the dumb dumbs upstairs brought the illogical dumb dumbs with them. Upon entering the kitchen, a Keyblade was shoved in my face.

"Why haven't you written about us, Pimp!Kai?" Sora asked fiercely, though he had hurt written all over his face.

"'Pimp'?" I repeated. "Well...I guess since I'm the author, that makes you characters my bitches...even if I don't actually own you..."

"Stop changing the subject!" Riku interjected. Even Kairi was there, standing in the background with her arms crossed angrily.

"Do you not love us anymore?" Allen's voice said from behind me. I turned around to find him gray in complexion and found myself asking:

"Allen or Neah?"

He hesitated. "I am..._Neallen._"

"Called it," Lavi croaked. Kanda sourly reached for his wallet and drew out five bucks.

"I don't hate you guys," I said. "I'm really sorry! But...I...it's gonna be a while before I continue the story..."

"Noooooo!" Lavi moaned.

"Why the fuck not?" Kanda demanded. Everyone else seemed to agree as they all glared at me.

Unison glares are creepy.

"I...well, I...I...kinda forgot...the storyline..." I mumbled quietly, lowering my head.

**_"WHAT?"_** They all shouted.

"I'm sorry!" I cried. "But I was so depressed for so long and I lost all my inspiration-inspiration doesn't just pop out of your ass, yanno!-and I've been so busy with trying to pass school that it all just kinda slipped my mind!" I tried to rationalize my ignorance, but I couldn't. _There was no excuse._

Neallen frowned. "Surely if you just sat down and thought about it all, something will come to you?"

"Or you could just fucking pull something out of your fucking ass and hope it fucking works lime you fucking did last fucking time," Kanda sneered.

"I guess I could...But I don't want to be a sell out or anything..."

"So long as you don't try to go weekly again, you can do it," Sora encouraged with a smile.

"You're right!" I beamed at them all.

And then we all skipped off into the sunrise and lived happily ever fucking after.

* * *

**A/N:** TROLOLOLOL, hate mail.

I will try to start updating regularly. Go figure, real life takes up shitload of time. Just keep your panties out of a goddamn twist. If you hate waiting on me just to find out how I'll torture the characters we all know and love next, then write your own fanfiction and don't waste my fucking time with hate mail.

Fucking poser.


	10. Letter of Revision

Dear my darling readers,

I am terribly, awfully, horrendously apologetic for whatever inconvenience I may have cause you when you clicked on this chapter with such excitement only to find that it was not a long awaited update. Instead, this is simply a note asking to direct your attention to my profile page.

It is, however, understandable that some people are simply too lazy to click to the author's profile. I should know: I am one of those people. So for lazy bums like me, I shall address the gist of all the information you will find on my profile here, emphasized in bold.

**This story is going to undergo major revisions, including rewrites.**

**Such revisions have not begun, so they will take time.**

**I will try to balance between the revisions so the stories update evenly.**

It should be noted that I am in college now (yay!), so that takes the main priority of my life. But I have enough free time to easily take on three stories for rewrite. Right now, the goal is to update each story at least once a month, starting in March 2013.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns (or you wish to flame me fur the lulz), feel free to do so~

I assure you I am not shitting you this time,

Le Kaikai~


End file.
